


Kingsman: Mirror's Edge

by bethebest



Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, BAMF Merlin, Gen, OFC - Freeform, OMC - Freeform, Spy - Freeform, new recruits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-03-24 20:36:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3783547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bethebest/pseuds/bethebest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Galahad, formerly known as Eggsy Unwin, is tasked with finding Arthur's replacement, he is upset at the lackluster assignment. Lancelot and all the other Kingsman are out in the world, reestablishing order in the post-frenzy world. With the world balancing on a precipitous edge between real and imagined, can the new Galahad know who to trust and what to believe when one of the recruits isn't all that they seem?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Recruits

Galahad placed his glasses on the long wooden table. The table was polished to high shine, like the room surrounding it. Elegant windows shone light onto the table while simultaneously opening up the otherwise narrow room.

Galahad carefully placed his hand on his forehead. A moment later he abandoned all pretense of composure and rubbed his face with his palm. Galahad let out a great sigh and began to slam his fist down onto the table. He didn’t get that far.

“Galahad!” A stern voice caught the young man in the middle of his childish act. Galahad tried to play it off as swatting a fly.

“Shit, I missed him,” Galahad said as he brought his hand back to rest gently on the table, “What’s up Merlin?”

Merlin strode into the room without preamble, “We need to find Arthur’s replacement.” Merlin spoke in a serious manner, one that only joked with wit. “Who do you have in mind?”

Galahad spun his chair towards Merlin he opened his arms wide as though he couldn’t imagine Merlin’s accusation, “Look mate, I just got here, I haven’t exactly had enough time to waltz up to someone and ask them, ‘Hey do you wanna risk your life and limb in service of about the only functioning spy organization left?’”

“At least a large part of your work is already done,” Merlin said seriously, “Those who survived the frenzy are much more likely to be worthy members.”

“Thanks, I had truly forgotten how fucked up the world was. I really needed the reminder,” Galahad spat back.

Truthfully, no one needed a reminder about those terrifying five minutes. The only good thing was that no one who was capable of launching nuclear bombs thought of it. Or if people had the thought the numerous safeguards protecting the nuclear warheads actually kept the bombs from being launched. 

That was the only factor that was possibly good about the frenzy. 20% of the population involved in the frenzy died either during the frenzy or later from fatal injury. Almost all governments were collapsed. Luckily, China, Great Britain, the United States of America, Norway, Chile, Israel, Turkey, the Maldives, Canada, and Australia, all had their government more or less intact. In other words, the line of succession was clear. Beyond that most countries were in shambles. Small groups were starting to pick themselves back together and create new allegiances. Particularly in Africa ethnic groups that had been separated by arbitrary country lines were coming back together to form hundreds of fractured groups. 

Britain had remained mostly intact, a few mass graves had been constructed and above it a touch screen and a memorial stone had the information of those who had passed during the frenzy. The memorial stone was there for those who actually knew the names engraved upon it. The touchscreen was for friends to look up other friends to find out why they weren’t coming to book club every Tuesday.

The world was in mourning and the only entity they had to lash their anger onto was Valentine. But Valentine was dead and so was every corrupt official who had been willing to kill those they had sworn to protect. The world had no way to get revenge against Valentine, so the world sought justice in other ways. 

Revenge became so prominent that Merlin, using a cgi person the Kingsman had made up, had essentially ordered that the world forgive those who had killed during the frenzy. During his announcement, Merlin had made the very good point that if everyone took revenge, then Valentine’s plan to destroy humanity would work. Everyone would be dead anyway. 

The heavens had smiled upon the world that day for the killings stopped almost immediately. Life had started to go back to normal in the countries that more or less had a functioning government. Unfortunately, those countries were the exception to the rule. The established members of the Kingsman had been sent out to strategically chosen regions to try and bring some semblance of stability to the world. That left Galahad with the daunting task before him.

Finding the replacement for Arthur. 

Arthur had been the de facto head of the Kingsman. Whoever his replacement was to be, he or she had to be top class, capable of thinking under pressure, keeping all outlooks in mind, and absolutely incorruptible. 

And since all the official Kingsmen were already saving the world, Merlin had left Galahad to the task of finding Arthur. 

Merlin sighed, “Galahad, I know this is a lot, but you can handle it. Pick all sorts of people. They have to be someone you would be willing to follow, first and foremost Eggsy. The rest will sort itself out after that.”

Merlin stood up and placed a hand on Galahad’s slumped shoulder, “You can do it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

~

Galahad strode down the street. He had a lot of work to do but most importantly, he needed coffee. Galahad strolled into the nearest Starbucks, ordered his drink, then sat down looking out onto the street. 

Galahad watched the people pass, evaluating every one. That one walked with confidence but that meant he was probably either compensating or a dick. That blonde woman just tripped over herself, too clumsy. That kid was too young. That old man was clearly crazy.

Before he knew it, Galahad had mentally crossed off everyone that crossed his sight and allowed his coffee to grow cold. Sighing, Galahad left the seat he’d been occupying and left the Starbucks. It wasn’t like he could magically find the new Arthur while staring at the streets of London. 

~

“Merlin!” Galahad shouted to catch the older man’s attention, “Did you see the list I sent you earlier?”

Merlin stopped and looked up from his clipboard, “Yes, and it looks a bit long, though highly qualified.”

Galahad smiled, “Well I’m about to start asking them if they want to try, I’m sure some of them will say no.”

“You made sure that they aren’t actively being used in the community? We don’t want them to have to choose between those already under their care and people they haven’t met yet,” Merlin spoke gravely.

“Yeah,” Galahad answered easily, “All of them are remarkable, but don’t draw too much attention. I feel like a mother.”

Merlin smiled, “Just wait ‘til you start training them. You’ll become a regular old hen.”

Galahad smirked, “I don’t think I’ll ever be quite as old as you were.”

Merlin rolled his eyes, “Nor as wise. Go ask them soon, we haven’t got all week. You are to begin training with them next week.” 

“Yes, sir,” Galahad saluted, “Can I take the nice jet?”

“Not the white one but you can take the black one.”

“Why can’t I take the white one? I really like it,” Galahad pouted.

“Because the white one is mine and I don’t want you to crash it.”

“Merlin, you know I won’t.”

“I’m not taking that risk,” Merlin said seriously but with a playful tilt to the corner of his mouth, “Oh and I forgot to tell you but I have another candidate I want you to consider.” Merlin dug through the papers on his clipboard before pulling out a file and handing it to Galahad.

“Look this one over, I think there’s potential but I can’t find her location. There’s an email if you want to contact her though. Be careful, as always Galahad.”

“I will, sir,” Galahad said politely. Galahad understood Merlin’s concern. Ever since people had traced the Merlin’s transmission begging people to stop revenge killing back to the tailor company, the  
Kingsman secrecy had never been more at risk.

~

Galahad sat back in the cabin of his comfortable jet. He had evaluated Merlin’s candidate and had decided to go for it. Compared to normal people her dossier was impressive, in this line up, it was merely  
normal. 

Galahad was currently flying towards the prospect he thought could go the farthest. The man’s name was Evan Rostov, he was easily passed over but carried himself with straight shoulders and a chin facing the future. Rostov was currently spending his time rewiring the electrical power systems of the small Canadian town he called home.

The Canadian town was a rather nice place to be, particularly considering Rostov’s ties to the Russian mob. Rostov had either single-handedly ruined or brought new life to the organized crime depending on the situation. The man had amazing vision and only left the family when it became clear that the family was going to do nothing for the Russian poor. 

A note worthy goal, Galahad thought to himself. But the man is most likely dangerous, as always. Galahad went over his mental checklist of things he would need to bring to the job proposal, his lighter, ring, pen, watch, phone, glasses, polished shoes, suit (of course), and umbrella in case it threatened to rain. 

All of the aforementioned were weapons in their own right of course, but it would never do to bring hand guns to every meeting. How boarish. 

Galahad relaxed into his seat, closing his eyes and enjoying his brief time alone.

“Galahad,” Merlin’s voice broke through Galahad’s silence, “How is Rostov coming?” 

“I’m not even there yet, Merlin,” Galahad droned out. Galahad sat back up and looked out the window, his time alone forsaken.

“Oh, sorry ‘bout that then,” Merlin’s voice continued speaking to Galahad through Galahad’s glasses.

“Doubt it,” Galahad said.

“Anyway,” Merlin spoke, “Have you checked out that profile I showed you?”

“Yeah, yeah. I sent her an email for a place to meet. Seems rather fishy doesn’t it?” Galahad asked. The email itself couldn’t be traced. Even in terms of the spy world it was strange to have an email  
address so casually displayed and marketed as “HERE’S HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.”

“Well, there’s actually a reason I wanted you to check in on her. I think she might be missing.”

“Really? Why would you think that? Our absolute inability to get actual proof of her existence? Or is it the shady email drop?”

“Galahad, please take this seriously,” Merlin reprimanded.

“Look, I don’t understand why we should be worried about her. Yeah, I mean her test scores were good and all that and she was a crowd favorite and made that chip thingy, but that isn’t exactly extraordinary you know?”

“You’re right Galahad,” Merlin said, “But we owe her to at least check it out.”

“We owe it to her? What has she done for us?” Galahad, though his words on their own sounded petulant, was actually quite interested. Someone, not even older than Galahad himself, had managed to make the Kingsmen in such debt that even as the world was going to shit, it was a matter of course that they stopped everything to make sure she hadn’t been kidnapped.

“She is just very important, Galahad, and that’s all you need to know right now,” Merlin’s voice had turned terse.

“But why Merlin? Who is she?” Galahad pressed.

“It is precisely who she is that makes her important. Now focus on Rostov, he might be hard to win over.”

“Yes sir,” Galahad said as his farewell. Merlin had wanted to get off that communication as soon as he had brought up the Ryder girl. 

Galahad sat staring out the window, he couldn’t start planning for saving the Ryder girl (if she even needed saving) until her people responded to his email. Mentally changing gears, Galahad went to the bathroom to freshen up.

Galahad stared at his own, young, face in the mirror. He carefully combed his hair so that it parted and laid flat. Galahad put his glasses on and fixed his tie. The plane was nearing landing.

As Galahad looked at his own reflection he was reminded of words once told to him. 

“I see a young man with potential, a young man who is loyal, who can do as he’s asked, and who wants to do something good with his life.”

Galahad remembered the words of his mentor, Harry Hart, who had held the name Galahad before him. Galahad was Eggsy Unwin’s code name while he was in service of the Kingsman spy organization. Harry Hart had brought Eggsy Unwin into the Kingsman life, and been the father Eggsy had never had. 

Harry had been killed about a month earlier and since then Eggsy had taken over Harry’s position. Harry had given Eggsy a second shot at life, and Eggsy will never be able to repay him. Eggsy and Merlin hadn’t had the time to inform Harry’s family of his death in the line of service. Eggsy insisted on going himself and Merlin hadn’t been able to find Harry’s family. Merlin claimed Harry had a child, though he thought it had been born out of wedlock as Harry was only married for a few months. 

Eggsy looked at himself and saw Galahad staring evenly back. Galahad wore the suit, Galahad was a gentleman, Galahad could face anything without batting an eye. Eggsy hid behind baggy clothes, Eggsy was rude and flippant to others, Eggsy acted irrationally.

These descriptions didn’t apply all the time or even in most situations, but they were reflective of what the young man in front of the mirror thought.

“Sir,” The pilot rapped on the changing room, “We’ve landed.”

“Excellent,” Galahad smiled as he walked out of the dressing room, and greeted the pilot, “Let’s go find Mr. Rostov shall we?”

~

The meeting with Rostov went better than expected, meaning that Rostov has agreed to come to be trained. Within a week, Galahad had seven candidates for Arthur’s position at the table. They were to come to the tailor shop in another week, so that Galahad and the other Kingsman had enough time to set up the trials. It also served itself rather nicely because it gave time for the candidates to extricate themselves from their communities, rather than be suddenly pulled away without notice.

It unfortunately also gave Galahad enough time to look into the whole Ms. Ryder situation. He had received an extremely cryptic email telling him to go to a club in Seoul where she would make contact with him. Merlin had given him the go ahead so, after once again ensuring he had all the right equipment, Galahad set off for possibly the farthest place he could go from England.  
Seoul had been heavily affected by Valentine’s destruction wave. Almost the entire government had been decimated. For some reason, the South Koreans had taken to partying their cares away, and nearly a month later, the party was still going strong.

This was the scene Galahad strolled into on a dark Wednesday night. The club was pulsing with energy, the strobes beat frantically to a tune unheard by any human. The music blared and kept a beat slightly faster than was comfortable. Galahad decided to walk around the multi-layered club. If he didn’t find Ms. Ryder, then at least he would know the layout better.

“Galahad can you hear me?” Merlin checked in over Galahad’s glasses.

“Yes, Merlin, it’s fucking loud in here though,” Galahad responded. Galahad couldn’t help but notice what a sore sight he was in the crowd. First off, he was the only person who was entirely dressed, let alone as well dressed as his Kingsman suit. Secondly, he was the only non-asian in the crowd. People parted for him, trying simultaneously to stay out of his way and gawk like he was some rare bird.

Galahad supposed that since travel had all but ceased to places like South Korea where government was just an idea that he was the only foreigner they had seen in a while. 

Galahad turned down a hallway on the second level of the club that seemed to lead towards private rooms. On a whim, Galahad opened room 27. Galahad quickly closed the door, it seemed that its occupants were getting to know each other extremely well.

“Hello Mr. Henry,” a slightly accented voice greeted Galahad. Galahad turned around abruptly, still mildly shocked that someone would leave the door unlocked while they were “wrestling.”

“Hello,” Galahad responded to the alias, “Are you Ms. Ryder?”

“No sir, but she wanted me to send you to her.”

“Send me to her?” Galahad asked with a charming smile and a slight tilt of his head.

“Yes, sir. Please follow me.” The woman spoke with a responding smile.

“With pleasure,” Galahad followed the woman down the stairs the bar on the ground level. A woman with black curly hair and radiant brown skin nursed her drink. Apparently, Galahad was not the only foreigner in the club.

“Ms.,” The woman lightly touched the woman at the counter’s shoulder, “Mr. Henry is here.”

“Really?” The woman exclaimed loudly. She deftly spun her stool around with her high heels pushing off the bar table so she could face Galahad sooner. She stood up quickly and offered Galahad her hand. “Mr. Henry it is a pleasure to meet you! So few people actually come looking for me that I am honestly curious about what brings you here!” Galahad graciously shook hands with the exuberant woman. She matched the photos on file for Ms. Sarah Ryder.

“Oh, forgive my manners,” Ms. Ryder spoke quickly, “Let’s go somewhere we can actually talk without having to shout.” Ms. Ryder began to walk with the assumption that Galahad would follow. Galahad easily kept stride with Ms. Ryder.

“Is it always like this?” Galahad asked her lightly, indicating the large states of undress, pulsing music, and lewd behavior. 

“You mean the constant drinking and inappropriate behavior?” Ms. Ryder responded with a smile, “Of course! No one wants to remember anything so the club is filled to the brim any hour of any day!”

“Really? Any hour?” 

“Honey, the party never stops!” Ms. Ryder had brought them to a room on the second floor and heaved open the door. Inside were couches arranged in a U facing a window that looked out into the club. There was also a private bar and the room fell into near perfect silence when the door swung shut behind the pair.

“That’s better!” Ms. Ryder said at the sudden silence, “do you want anything to drink?”

“Do you know how to make a martini?”

“I’m sure I could figure it out, if you don’t want me to mess up your drink it might be better if you just make it. I don’t mean to be rude, some people are just very particular about their drink. If it were rum on the rocks I wouldn’t have hesitated,” Ms. Ryder spoke quickly, fumbling over her words.

“No worries,” Galahad came over to the bar and began making his martini.

When they had both finished making their respective drinks, they took seats on the couch facing the club.

“So, what brings you to contact me?” Ms. Ryder asked once they were both settled.

“I have a job opening I want you to consider.” Galahad said.

“What type of job?” Ms. Ryder asked.

“A classified type. One meant for people who do not mind secrecy, long hours, and serving the people.”

“You mean like a spy?” Ms. Ryder asked.

“Yes, in a way,” Galahad nodded his head.

“Do you even know me?” Ms. Ryder asked incredulously, “I would not be a very good spy.”

“According to our records you are the type of person we are looking for, Ms. Ryder,” Galahad said. He took another sip of his martini. He had checked the glass for poison before consuming his drink. 

“Please, Sarah,” Ms. Sarah Ryder said, “And anyways, I’m sure that your records aren’t 100% comprehensive.”

“While we have not been monitoring you from birth, Sarah, we have spent hours investigating whether or not we wanted to invite you to be interviewed for the position. Please rest assured that we have done our homework and would not have come to you if we were at all unsure. However, there is a rather large gap in our records for the past three years.”

“Really?” Sarah asked, leaning forward slightly, her eyes bright with excitement at the mild accusation.

“Yes, and that begs the question, Sarah, where have you been and what have you been doing that your records are unavailable?” Galahad asked pleasantly but pertinently.

“Well I was looking for my twin if that helps. I wasn’t saving the world or anything if that’s what you mean.”

“You have a twin?” Galahad asked kindly, genuine concern flashing before his eyes. 

“Yes, an identical sister. Or so I’m told. I think I remember meeting her when we were kids, but we didn’t grow up in the same home, and our families didn’t keep in touch,” Sarah looked down at her drink  
with a sad smile gracing her lips.

“I wish I’d gotten to know her better, I want to know how we’re different you know? Nature vs Nurture and all that,” Sarah spoke with a hint of sadness pulling at her voice. She was no doubt concerned about the effect of the frenzy on her sister.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” Galahad said.

“It’s alright. I know she’s out there somewhere, but I feel like at this point, we’re either supposed to meet or not supposed to meet and me wasting my time wandering the world isn’t helping either of us ya know?” Sarah set her drink down and switched her crossed legs.

“Yes, I do.” Galahad thought back to Harry being there for him every time he needed him. Harry had been the father he never knew.

“Back to the real subject at hand, who are you guys?” Sarah asked.

“Unfortunately, I cannot tell you at this time. Once we are at a safe location, and you have been cleared, I will be able to tell you more details about our organization. Our general purpose is to maintain order and act as a non-partisan organization that intervenes only when necessary,” Galahad responded easily. 

“Like right now?” Sarah asked.

“Yes,” Galahad inclined his head, “Like right now. We have… members all around the world currently striving to return some semblance of order to the devastated communities.”

“And you lost members during the frenzy?” Sarah asked.

“Yes, luckily we were able to inform our members active in the field to lock themselves in rooms and prevent further damage. Unfortunately, we were hoping to stop the frenzy before it even happened and so focused our efforts on that instead of informing the public of the possible danger. However, we did lose two members of our active field force and are now looking for new agents.”

“New agents like me,” Sarah said flatly.

“If you pass our tests, yes, new agents like you,” Galahad said. 

“Tests?” 

“While we have done extensive research into you,” Sarah smirked ever so slightly, “we cannot in good faith bring you onto our team without ensuring you are what your papers say.”

Sarah’s smile grew bigger. “Tests? Saving the world? Rebuilding communities? I’m in.”

“Fantastic.” Galahad stood up, “Might I bring you to our plane so we may begin security checks? If you need, there are five days between now and the start of tests so that you may remove yourself from the community if you need.”

Sarah stood smoothly as well and offered her hand to him, “It has been a pleasure, Mr. Henry, though I doubt that’s your real name,” Galahad smirked slightly, “I will take a day or two here to bid my farewells. After that, if it’s convenient for you, I will come find you at the Seoul airport. If it isn’t convenient, I can come find you at a location of your choosing.”

“Seoul airport works just fine, Sarah,” Galahad said and accepted her handshake, “I will send you further information about our rendezvous to your email address.”

Sarah smiled politely and nodded her head, “Thank you.”

“Oh, and Sarah,” Galahad turned around and added with a charming smile, “You may call me Galahad.”

~

Galahad researched more into Ms. Sarah Ryder’s existence at the club. For one as well versed as she was in both the electronic and physical world, she had left almost no trace for the past three years. When Ms. Ryder had been 17 she had developed a new method for adhering circuit wires to microchips. That had effectively lead to new, smaller, and faster microchips. At the age of 18 she had just finished J-ROTC and was intending on either enlisting or going to OCS. A lesser known fact was that she had been one of the head hackers of Anonymous, a hacker group committed to the common good. 

Three months before her 19th birthday, she vanished.

There was no record Galahad, or Merlin, could find for the next three years. 

Then, immediately following the frenzy, she appeared at the club and didn’t see any need to account for lost time.

But according to the horse itself, she had been looking for her sister the whole three years. That didn’t quite add up right, even looking for a sibling was sure to leave some sort of trace behind.

Galahad once again rubbed his young head. He needed to talk to Merlin.

~

“Fall in!” Galahad’s voice was exactly as loud as it needed to be to be heard. The recruits milling around the room immediately heard the familiar order and fell in to two lines.

“Recruits. You are here today to embark on the most difficult job interview of your life. On each of the cots you will see a body bag, there you will write your name, blood type and name of next of kin or organization you feel most closely tied to, a pen is provided. When you require use of your bag, we will send it to the location of whoever you wrote down. Your name on the bag indicates your understanding of the risks inherent to our evaluation system.”

The recruits looked evenly back at Galahad, seemingly unaffected by his words.

“You will start your training tomorrow,” Galahad turned to leave the room, “lights off in 30 minutes, so take care of your body bags and any other personal care you need, the room will be pitch black.”

“Yes, sir,” The recruits saluted as Galahad left the room.

Galahad let the door close behind him, even though he was technically the more experienced person here, he felt like a child compared to the recruits. Except, of course, for Ms. Ryder, who was supposedly a year younger than Galahad himself. 

“What’s the test going to be?” Merlin asked when Galahad joined Merlin behind the one way mirror.

“You want the long or the short of it?” Galahad asked.

“Whichever describes it best,” Merlin answered.

“Then you should probably just wait and see,” Galahad smirked and turned toward the room, “They should figure it out in a couple minutes.”


	2. Let the Tests Begin

Evan Rostov looked around the room, evaluating and dismissing the other recruits as he went through them. The woman with the smooth hair in a braid down her back didn’t have enough confidence in herself to lead an organization as extensive and secretive as Kingsman. The girl shouldn’t cause too much worry, other than the fact that she was the youngest by easily ten years and probably didn’t weigh 130 pounds soaking wet. The only real competition looked like it would be his old acquaintance, Shen Li.

“Shen,” Evan called out, “What’re you doing here you sly dog?”

Shen turned with a smile and reciprocated Evan’s extended hand for a handshake.

“Nothing much,” Shen said with a shake of his head, “Just here and there, helping where I can.”

“Helping?” Evan lightly shoved Shen’s shoulder, “ya gatta be kidden me. If you only “help” then I don’t really breathe, I just kinda move my lungs a bit.”

Shen’s embarrassed smile rose up, “I help. That’s it. I protect the people I can, and I serve those I wish. Just because I’m a good helper doesn’t mean I do more than help.”

“Uh, huh, well I’m just glad you’re here. If I don’t get the spot then I want someone competent to have it.”

Shen side eyed him, “I’m not the only good option here Evan. Look around you.”

Evan did, indeed, look around. He didn’t see much in the way of specialty. No prize winners, no Rhodes Scholars. In fact, the girl was the only one here who really made headlines and she hadn’t been in the news for years.

“What’s your point?” Evan asked.

“All of us are here for a very specific reason,” Shen explained, “I wouldn’t doubt if each of us could do the job already and now they are just testing us to see who fits the organization best.”

“Hey,” The girl spoke up suddenly from where she was sitting on her new cot writing her name on the body bag, “Is it just me or has the room gotten hazy?”

“Hazy?” someone asked, Evan wasn’t quite sure on everyone’s names yet.

“Yeah, kinda like it’s cloudy in here,” the girl said again. 

~

“Looks like Ms. Ryder has figured it out,” Merlin pointed at Sarah with his pen, “What do you bet that they believe her?”

“Shen and Carla might, but Evan, Sebastian and Riley won’t.” Galahad guessed.

“How do you expect them to solve it?” Merlin asked.

“The showerheads,” Galahad responded with a smile.

~

Debate rang back and forth about whether or not the room was getting more and more cloudy. The girl had gotten more indignant and said that the room was actually getting cloudier and cloudier as time wore on.

“She’s right,” Shen said, “Close your eyes for a couple seconds and then open them. The room’s hazier than it was before.”

“Thank you!” the girl threw her arms up, “Finally someone believes me!”

“What do we do about it?” The woman asked.

“I don’t know, it isn’t making it harder for anyone to breathe is it?” the girl asked, “does anyone have asthma?”

At the beginning of the second half of the girl’s little speech to her last breath the room became progressively cloudier and cloudier until the room closer resembled smog, or a black fog that blocked sight. 

“It’s getting worse!” Someone pointlessly shouted out.

“No shit Sherlock,” Evan said under his breath.

“Let’s figure out a solution,” another new voice said.

The fog continued to darken the room. Soon the lights were little balls of fuzzy, weak, light.

“Guys I can’t see anymore!”

“Can everyone at least breathe?”

“Yeah for the most part.”

The room was black, Evan wasn’t even sure where the voices were coming from, let alone where he was in the room.

“How do we fix this?”

“I don’t know!”

The room became a chorus of possible ideas and escape routes. Several people fell over and hurt themselves trying to save the day.

“Everyone stop moving!” Evan shouted, “Now let’s get our heads around this and lay out the facts. We can breathe and no one is experiencing any other side effects from the fog. Where are we in the  
room? Who is closest to the showers?”

“I am!” the girl’s smug voice rang out, “and I figured out how to get rid of the fog!”

~

When the room went dark, Galahad and Merlin had wordlessly turned on the heat sensing setting on their glasses.

Now they watched Ms. Ryder stand at the controls of the shower, ready to turn on the water at just the right time.

“Is that what you expected?” Merlin asked.

Galahad glared at Merlin, “Not at all. That was weird, like really weird. She should have reacted.”

Merlin looked skeptically back at Galahad’s glare, he knew the glare wasn’t directed at him, “So, stick to the plan?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Galahad agreed “routine drills, no involvement in our actual system.”

The two men resumed watching the first test.

~

The stupid girl did something and the noise of rushing water hit Evan’s ears. The girl was at the showers. Suddenly the room reoriented itself and Evan knew where he was again.

“Spray the water and it’ll take the fog with it!” The girl called out, “The showers are over here! If I spray you with water, follow the spray!”

Grumbling internally, Evan followed the child’s directions. He found his own showerhead and yanked it from the wall so he could spray further into the room. He could already see through the air in their barebones bathroom. Unfortunately he could also see the absurdly proud face of the girl. She didn’t even mind that her hair was getting wet so it’d go back to being curly.

~

Galahad walked in, prime, pressed, pristine, to the soaked room. The recruits were all in varying states of discomfort. Their clothes stuck to their skin and the pitch black water changed everything into shades of darkness. Most recruits were shivering in the make do bathroom while two shivered under their cots. Gthe two under the cots were remarkably clean. One recruit, Ms. Sarah Ryder, smiled from ear to ear and her white teeth were about the only white thing left in the room.

“Recruits,” Galahad said calmly, the recruits rushed to form a line opposite him, “Overall, well done. However, if you had communicated better the whole problem could have been avoided. Ms. Ryder, well done on noticing the room was filling with fog. However, you should have both relayed your plan to the rest of the group and acted on your knowledge sooner. The rest of you, as soon as a member of the group thinks something is going wrong, why didn’t you try and find a way to stop it? Did any of you figure out where the fog was coming from?”

Silence. Well, and some awkward shuffling. Galahad secretly hoped to himself that he and Lancelot hadn’t looked so damn intimidated when they were recruits. Considering Galahad himself had been entirely new and that Lancelot had just seen someone die when she had assured everyone no one would, Galahad would be extremely surprised if they hadn’t looked even more terrified.

“You, Evan, where was the fog coming from?” 

“Sir, I don’t know,” Evan answered back evenly.

“How about you Sebastian?”

The hulking man shook his head, “No sir.”

“It came from the vents. But I have a question for the group, who knew the fog was going to appear?”

The room froze. Galahad’s light eyes pierced through the loose line of the recruits.

Slowly, hand by hand, three people raised their hands. Sarah, Jeffery, and Colin.

“And how did you know the fog was going to appear?” Galahad asked. He was a patient teacher using his capable students to teach the rest of the class.

“It was on the body bag,” Colin answered. Colin was a soft person. Soft voice, soft curves, soft personality. Or at least he looked it to everyone else. Galahad had learned enough about the man to know that Colin was anything but soft.

“Do explain further,” Galahad instructed.

“Well, when I was writing on my bag I noticed that parts of my writing were different than the others. So I scribbled on the piece of paper and saw the message that said that a black fog was going to  
appear in the room. It also said not to tell anyone.” Colin said. Realization of his error slowly dawned on him.

“And in future leadership roles, when you have information that the rest of the group does not know, will you keep it to yourself just because someone “tells you not to say anything?”” Galahad’s voice dripped with sarcasm and disappointment.

“Did you know that the fog was harmless?” Galahad continued to ask Colin.

“Not for sure sir, but I assumed that since it was a test that we wouldn’t be harmed,” Colin didn’t even try to save himself. He knew the lesson would be much less embarrassing if he owned up to it. He should have protected his teammates.

“In the future, how will you know?” Galahad shouted at the group, “Recruits, you are here today because we are looking for a new field agent. Someone who we would be willing to die for. I will never be willing to die for someone who “assumed it was harmless because we look like good blokes.” You lot are our options, but that doesn’t mean that someone in this room is automatically going to become our new man, or woman. If I can’t trust you lot, there is no way I will trust you to have my, and my teammates’, backs in battle and in life. You, Sarah.”

Sarah lifted her chin stiffly. The majority of her still foolishly expected praise but her smarter mind knew she should expect punishment.

“Yes, sir.” Sarah said.

“You saw a similar note on your body bag, correct? What did it say?” Galahad’s light eyes pierced her soul. 

“The room will soon fill with a black fog that takes away sight and causes disorientation. It will stick to clothes. Don’t tell anyone,” Sarah quoted from memory. She spoke with ease and her pride still simmered under the surface, waiting to be praised.

“Good, and so what did you do?” Galahad asked sneeringly.

“I told them,” Sarah answered simply. The rest of the recruits flinched at her poor choice of answer.

“No, you did not, Ms. Ryder,” Galahad said scathingly. “I believe the exact words you used were, “hey, is it just me or is the room getting hazy” that is sure as direct as saying “Guys scribble on your body bags, mine had a note that the room is going to fill with fog soon.” But in your statement you simultaneously took a very passive route towards expressing your knowledge while also making your entire attempt to inform others of the plan reliant upon someone else noticing the almost impossible slight amount of fog entering the room. Then, you waited to save the day until several people had tried to solve the situation. And you still didn’t know that the fog was harmless, all anyone cared about was breathing!”

Galahad was pacing now. He stilled himself. The recruits didn’t move for fear of bringing his ire. They all understood the severity of his reprimand. In another situation it could have cost them their lives.

“Right, I’ll leave you all to your mess in just a moment, there are some things I need to clarify. One: you are being tested for primarily your leadership skills and how you react and handle situations, I  
would say that almost everyone failed here today, but there are still chances. Act as you would in real life, if you fake anything then that defeats the purpose of testing you, also it’d be pretty hard to get it past Merlin.” Galahad took a deep breath and then continued his rant at an even volume. 

“Two: every one of you is important, treat each other like it. Three: The fog wasn’t harmless, you will all, except for those of you who took shelter under the beds where the antidote was sprayed, experience highly uncomfortable side effects. They would have lasted longer the more you inhaled. The fog also chemically made everyone panic, so there is a high likelihood that you all will be more anxious than normal these next few days. With that in mind, goodnight and sleep hard. Tomorrow is when the real training begins.”

Galahad turned out of the room to the recruits standing in silence. As soon as he left, the recruits began interrogating each other about the test. In particular, they discussed the side effects, diarrhea mostly, the bed situation, air movement was used to prevent the fog from actually reaching the people below, and why no one had shared the information, to which no one had a good answer to.

Galahad walked into the surveillance room.

“Well done, Eggsy,” Merlin congratulated the young Galahad.

Galahad nervously smiled at the compliment, “Do you think I’ve got them scared enough now Merlin? Think they’ll still see me as a kid?”

“You are a kid to them. But, yes, I think that that will go a long way to them seeing you as a force to be reckoned with,” Merlin said with a nod and a gentle smile.  
Galahad smiled but stared into the room in response. Truthfully, he had been sweating the entire time. Waiting for someone to call his bluff, even though he wasn’t bluffing. Any member of that room’s arm was more qualified than Eggsy himself to be standing there considered as an agent. Which was the way it was supposed to be, Galahad thought, if we’re looking for our Arthur then he or she needs to be the top of the top.

~

The training went as well as could be expected the next few days. The group was old but experienced, well except for Ms. Ryder. She was young and inexperienced but made up for it with energy.

Everytime the group moved on to the next step, whether it was rucking, crawling, firing weapons, jumping from planes, launching grenades, practicing hand to hand, Sarah trailed behind at the beginning and had all but caught up by the end of that session.

It was only when the recruits were doing their review of all they had learned in the past two months that Galahad noticed another weird thing about Sarah. When they were being put through their paces, she was the exact same percentage worse at everything. 

Her pushups had gone from 50 in two minutes to 48. Her mile time of 7:15 went up to 7:32. Her hand to hand score went from a 95 to 91. Her punches per minute on the boxing pad went from 55 to 53. She was the same amount worse across the board.

“Merlin,” Galahad went to Merlin with his own special clipboard of numbers and figures, “I found something weird.”

“Is it with Ms. Ryder?” Merlin asked politely.

“Yes, but this one is really strange,” Galahad looked up at Merlin for help, “I don’t know how to make sense of it.”  
“Well what is it?” Merlin asked curiously and took the offered clipboard.

“Look at her scores,” Galahad urged.

“What about them?” Merlin asked as he scrolled down the page.

“They’re the same,” Galahad tried to take the clipboard back. Merlin refused so Galahad had to hang over his shoulder so he could point at the screen.

“The,” Galahad grunted as Merlin didn’t make it any easier for him to see the screen, “The ratios are all the same. Everything is 4% worse than it was before.”

“What does that mean?” Merlin asked, taking a closer look at the clipboard.

“I don’t know,” Galahad said and moved to pace away from Merlin. He used his hands to speak and his active accent was emphasized. “It just doesn’t make sense, how is she exactly the same across the board? Even things that aren’t supposed to change much were taken down, like the throwing darts. Only one person had a larger drop in that area, and that was Jeffery and he was terrible at that anyway! And then with the sniper rifle shooting scores, she didn’t drop at all compared to everyone else and she wasn’t even a trained sniper! She didn’t even know how to use the scope properly when she started for fuck’s sake!”

“Galahad,” Merlin looked at Eggsy seriously, “We can’t let her find out anything.”

“I know, I know! Merlin,” Galahad gestured with his arms, “I haven’t even let them near the house. We’ve been either underground, in the tunnels that aren’t connected, or in tents. Makes it damn near impossible to get there too. But obviously we can’t let her know. She’s so strange Merlin. She’s always the same, no matter what. And even when she’s angry or upset she does the exact same thing every time. It’s like fucking déjà vu. None of the other recruits really like her either. Shen’s the only one who talks to her.”

“Hmm,” Merlin sighed. Then he looked up, new understanding in his eyes, “Galahad I will take over the training. I need you to investigate her. Figure out what happened in Seoul, maybe try and find the twin. I don’t remember her having a twin so she’s probably lying about that. Be careful Eggsy.”

“I will, Merlin,” Galahad nodded gravely, “and you know that you never told me who she was.”

Merlin took a deep breath and a sad cloud passed over his normally passive face, “She’s the daughter of one of our finest operatives. She was born out of wedlock and his family didn’t approve. The mother died in childbirth and so the kid was put up for adoption. She was adopted by an American family and our agent continued to send money and visit when he could. Three years ago she vanished and we couldn’t find her anywhere. He’s gone now but I promised him I would look out for her.”

“Oh,” Galahad eloquently said. She was like him, or she was before all the weird stuff happened. “Does she know that her father was a Kingsman?”

“I don’t know,” Merlin answered, “I tried not to talk about her. It always made him sad. He wanted her to live with him when he finally found a house, but she wanted to stay with her adoptive parents.”

“How would he have been able to raise a kid and be a Kingsman?” Galahad asked. He didn’t say it but he had wondered if he would wind up like his own father, inadvertently abandoning his kid when he or she needed him most. Eggsy wasn’t going to have his family become like the family he was raised in.

“He would have left us. Raising a family only works if someone can stay home and raise the children. The mother was gone, and Ha-he wasn’t able to look for a new partner.”

“That’s rough,” Galahad simply said, mind full of the sacrifice that comes with being a Kingsman.

“It is,” Merlin agreed, “which is why we have a saved pool of money for the girl.”

“You didn’t give it to her?” 

“She vanished,” Merlin answered with a shrug, “and then she came back out of the blue. It was too convenient, too sudden. And you had a weird feeling after that first test. I didn’t want to soil her name if it turned out to be something strange, you know, obviously.”

Galahad nodded, not fully understanding but seeing how distraught Merlin was after bringing up his fallen companion and the hope and anguish upon finding Sarah and then thinking there was something to be concerned about.

“I’m going to head to Seoul tonight,” Galahad informed Merlin, “You’ve got the training, yeah?”

“Yeah, I can handle the training. You were going to move onto physical group challenges right?”

“Right,” Galahad affirmed. 

“When you go,” Merlin warned, “Bring your suit and everything else. I don’t want to lose you on this one. It’s strictly recon, and you stay in contact with me every thirty minutes. More if the situation requires it. If it gets hot in there you get out of the kitchen, understand me?”

“I do Merlin,” Galahad said with a wide smile, “it’s almost as though you care about me, I’m touched.”

“Shut up Eggsy,” Merlin said with a smile, “of course I do, but if you don’t get your ass in that plane and back here safe then you’re going to become extremely acquainted with my unpleasant side.”

“Sure I will,” Galahad provoked. Faster than Galahad could react, Merlin reached out and tazed Galahad lightly with his pen.

“Thanks Merlin, you don’t know how much that means to me. Also, you have just started war, I hope you realize that I was trained on the street. Pranks and games are serious business and I was the king.”

Merlin smirked, “Try me Eggsy, I bet you’ll experience a coup of that little crown you wear. Now get, the plane is already ready for your departure and now you’re just wasting time.”

~

Galahad stepped off the plane, pressed, prime, and pristine compared to the relative decrepit nature around him. 

Galahad cased the club for a day, noting guard shifts, entrances and exits and overall floor plan. The club was the center of the building and was hollow so that most rooms in the upper floors had windows either to the outside or the club itself. 

There were two staircases inside the club itself. One grand one went from the second floor to the base where the bar was. It had a wide mouth at the bottom of the stairs and was covered with red velvet. 

The second staircase was more routine, it went through the back of the club and was partially covered by walls and windows. It was more basic, zigzagging up through every floor of the club.

The bottom layer of the club was home to the bar, valet, coat check and dance floor. There were a few booths that lined the floor but they were public and crammed with people. The second floor of the club was for VIPs. A balcony went three fourths around the room, hosting both the staircase and another bar. There were separate rooms up on the second level, two were for banquets, and there were five like the type Sarah had brought Mr. Henry to. Those five made up the last quarter of the room and the entire wall facing the inside of the club was made of glass. This glass could be tinted at the discretion of the inhabitants. 

There were also rooms further inside the walls. These were similar to the room where Mr. Henry had encountered two club goers getting to know each other better.

There was one room set up differently than the other rooms, room 33. According to the blueprint from about a year ago, one of the rooms had been revamped to include a modest kitchen and a separate locking system.

If there was time, Galahad desperately wanted to check it out. His first objective was to infiltrate their security system. His job was to find a place a USB could sit for a couple days without anyone noticing. During those few days, Merlin was planning on hacking in and downloading their data.

“We ready to go for tonight?” Galahad asked Merlin over his glasses.

“Your tonight is my noon,” Came Merlin’s dry voice, “but, yes, I am ready.”

“Isn’t Roxy over here somewhere?” Galahad asked about his dear teammate. They had gone through training together and had saved the world together.

“Not really, she’s in Thailand. I suppose she’s on the Asian continent however so you’re partially correct.”

“Do you think after this I could stop by and say hi?” Galahad asked.

“I dunno you ask her, I’ll connect you.”

“Roxy,” Galahad spoke to the empty air of his room inside the Kingsman safe room in Seoul.

A brief pause and then Roxy’s voice, “Eggsy.”

“How are you?” Galahad asked. He began getting dressed for the night out.

“Holding up fine. I’m trying to get people to rebuild but it isn’t really working. I mean, we have someone willing to lead and all that, but the people just don’t want to follow.”

“So get a new leader,” Galahad said easily.

“It’s not that simple. But yes, that’s the goal. How’re the recruits?”

“Weird.” 

“Weird how?” Roxy asked with a laugh.

“Weird like I’m currently on a recon mission investigating one of them,” Galahad responded.

“That is strange. Merlin sent you?”

“Yeah, he’s overseeing their training now.”

“So what’re you investigating?” Roxy asked.

“This one girl is really very strange. She disappeared for three years and then showed up out of the blue.”

“Why is that strange? I mean, yes, it’s unusual but what makes it worth leaving the recruits?”

“She’s strange. I can’t describe it very well just a bunch of little things that add up, you know? Merlin and I felt weird about it so we’ll both feel better after I finish recon,” Galahad finished putting on his suit and began to tie his tie.

“Well go with your gut. I’ve got to go but, Eggsy, be safe. Err on the side of caution alright?”

“Of course.”

“I mean it Eggsy, there is a time and a place to risk your life, recon is not that place,” Roxy said with a stern tone to her voice.

“You too. Be safe good girl.”

“Always.”


	3. Finding Sarah

Galahad waltzed into the club. His target was to get connected to the station the waitresses used to fill up nonalcoholic drinks. It only had one main camera to be concerned about and Galahad trusted his light fingers to allow himself to get there with little to no issue.

The problem was that Galahad had forgotten the foreigner aspect of South Korea. As soon as he walked into the club everyone was aware of him. There were several people gently following him around, mostly just curious about why this foreigner was here, and whether he was rich.

Nonetheless, Galahad easily inserted the USB into the monitor. The USB was the same color as the monitor which made it nearly impossible to see at night and would make it very easy to miss during daylight hours. Although even when the sun shines, the club maintains its dark mood lighting.

Galahad ensured that Merlin got a good view of the USB connected to the monitor. 

“Good job, you have the go ahead to check out room 33. Up the stairs, take a right, second hallway and third door to your left,” Merlin spoke to Eggsy.

Eggsy “adjusted” his glasses. He couldn’t quite respond to Merlin in any other way, there were too many eyes on him. Nevertheless Galahad strolled casually up the main staircase. Hardly any club goers used the second staircase. The second staircase was typically used by the workers of the club and not the actual guests.

Galahad walked up the staircase with purpose, easily striding up and evaluating those below him. His cover, when pressed, was that of a wealthy entrepreneur who was looking to invest in the swiftly growing club environment.

And Galahad acted like it, smoothly turning right and effortlessly surveying the club below. He took the second hallway and then politely knocked. 

There was no response. Galahad tried to turn the handle. It didn’t move.

“Merlin?” Galahad asked questioningly. He was alone, so it was acceptable to speak.

“One moment,” The sound of keyboard clicks filled Galahad’s ears, “Try it now.”

Galahad smoothly opened the door, door now easily swinging open to reveal a suite like the blueprint said.

Adjacent to the door on Galahad’s left was a small armchair with a lamp and table next to it. To Galahad’s right was the small kitchenette, the counter was spotless. The small table next to the armchair was covered in papers. They looked like they were filled with code. In front of Galahad and to the right the room was cornered off by walls. According to the blueprint these walls cornered off the bathroom.

The thing that drew Galahad’s attention was Sarah Ryder cautiously watching him from her sprawled position on the bed. She wore thread bare shorts and a loose tank top. Her hair was in a rough French braid until half way on her head where it was clear she had given up. The rest of her hair frizzed out and looked brittle, unlike her hair from two days before. Her skin was ashy and she looked unhealthily skinny.

The most startling change was her outlook was different. She evenly gazed at Galahad’s unexpected entrance. Her eyes were calculating and her face was expressionless. She had one piece of paper in front of her, pen in hand. 

Galahad closed the door behind him, then turned back around and continued looking at Sarah.

She looked back.

“Hello,” Galahad eventually opened after she refused to speak.

Sarah nodded stiffly.

“It’s a surprise to see you here,” Galahad said benignly.

Sarah’s face didn’t change but her body did stiffen.

“What are you working on?” Galahad asked again. He walked over closer to get a better look at the paper on her bed, lightly tapping his umbrella as he went.

Sarah didn’t say anything but when Galahad got close enough pushed herself to the far end of the bed. Her eyes remained on him, evaluating his every step.

Galahad froze and backed away hands up placating, “Look. What’s wrong?”

At last she spoke, “What are you doing here?” Her voice scratched and tore at her throat from lack of use.

“Can I ask you first?” Galahad asked.

“How are you in here if you don’t know what I’m doing here?” Sarah asked skeptically.

“I’m curious,” Galahad shrugged and answered easily.

“Curiosity killed the cat you know,” Sarah warned.

“Satisfaction brought it back,” Galahad smiled and retorted.

“Not this time,” Sarah dryly smiled with no warmth to her face. She blinked and looked Galahad in the eye, “You really don’t know why I’m in here, do you?”

“Not a clue,” Galahad answered, “and I’m dying to know.”

Sarah thought a moment.

“If I tell you, you might end up like me,” she warned.

“I’ll take that chance,” Galahad said with an easy smile.

“Who are you?” Sarah asked in wonderment, “I guess you probably won’t answer that.” Galahad smiled as his answer.

Sarah continued, “Do you know who I am?”

“Sarah Ryder. Child genius and hacker extraordinaire. You made a fortune on new chip technology. Also, you vanished three years ago,” Galahad stated.

“Yeah, and the hacking got me in trouble. Do you have a way to record and send this out in case we get interrupted?” Sarah asked

Galahad hesitated, waiting for Merlin’s call. 

“You can tell her “yes,”” Merlin spoke quietly.

“Yes,” Galahad succinctly spoke.

“Good. Alright first things first Richmond Valentine, head of the Valentine Corporation, is working on a wave that will stimulate the aggression and destructive impulses in everyone within range and will force everyone to kill each other. He must have a way of canceling the wave but that can be easily changed so I’d suggest you try and find his headquarters. Look in remote areas, possibly high up where lots of traffic to and from won’t be noticed. Being up high will lessen the chance that he and whoever he chooses to save are affected by the wave.”

Sarah paused waiting for Galahad to interrupt, or at least act surprised.

“He did that last month,” Galahad informed the imprisoned girl, “We call it the frenzy. It only lasted four minutes total, in two and two minute segments.”

Sarah’s face fell. 

“Shit.”

Galahad tightened his lips, “Yeah.”

“Damn, alright well has anything else happened?” Sarah asked.

“Well, the world right went to shit after the frenzy so other than that not much. Most governments went to hell because Valentine either kidnaped or killed the main government officials in each government. At the moment the world is trying to get back on its feet. A few places in Europe and Africa are back to normal for the most part. Obviously the communities are suffering but they have the basic necessities. Small groups are cropping up with leaders that are trying to get their communities back up and functional. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had new country lines after this.”

“How many people did we lose?” Sarah asked.

“20% of the global population.”

Sarah closed her eyes. She was crying.

“Fuck.” She said.

“I know man,” Galahad said, “It sucks.”

“Alright, well lemme tell you the other thing I found,” Sarah said, “Richmond Valentine’s brother, Jeremy, was into robotics. He’s made a robot that looks like me. She’s good, I can tell you that. She acts like me, talks like me, thinks like me. You have to find her, I don’t want her destroying the little good I’ve done.”

“You’re telling me there’s a robot out there that is impersonating you?” Galahad asked.

“Yes. Though it’s probably not just me anymore,” Sarah answered, “Jeremy’s probably trying to take over in the new mayhem. I think that was his original idea. Get the robots in positions of power so that   
they aren’t motivated by petty emotions and solely focus on the wellbeing of the countries they govern.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that robots are going to try and take over the world?” Galahad asked.

“Yes. Or that was the plan before. If you can find the robot that looks like me, then you can ask her. She’s probably programmed not to tell you anything but if you find a good enough hacker I’m sure you can find a way to access her memory disk.” Sarah was now frantically writing on a new piece of paper. 

“What are you writing down?” Galahad asked.

“Names,” Sarah said distractedly, “These are going to be the best people to get in contact with. You’re going to need to find a way to distinguish between real and fake. I don’t think an EMP wave will work because it seems like they would have built in safe guards but I would give it a shot. Other than that, maybe try a really big magnet. They have to have metal of some sort inside which, with a powerful enough magnet, would reveal who they were. You might have to be careful with that though, some people have metal limbs.” Sarah finished talking and scribbling with a flourish.

“Here’s the list. What time is it?” Sarah asked. She handed Galahad the list, he tucked it inside his pocket.

“Nearly 11,” Galahad answered after looking at his watch.

“You need to get out of here. They give me my dinner right about now,” Sarah said, eyes darting to the door. Galahad noticed that on the inside of the door a kitty door was revealed. It must be hidden on the other side, Galahad thought to himself, or only noticeable if you knew it was there.

Galahad heard the handle click. Within a moment he was inside the bathroom and Sarah had pushed her dangerously thin, dry, frame to the door.

“You’re late,” Sarah said angry and slightly breathless from her quick exertion. 

Galahad shifted his glasses to thermal so he could see through the wall.

The man put the tray of food down on the table covered with code. He strolled around to look at the paper she had been working on that sat on the table.

Galahad silently stepped into the bathtub and behind the door. If he had remained where he was the man would have been able to see him.

“What is this?” The man picked up the paper.

“Something to do,” Sarah answered defensively.

“You’ve said that before,” the main said with little patience, “What does this code do?”

“I’m coming up with a game,” Sarah spoke.

“What type of game?”

“A game I’ll never play, honestly, you could at least give me one of those crappy analog computers. That’d at least be fun to fiddle with,” Sarah complained.

The man slapped her casually. The sound resonated through the room. Sarah didn’t flinch.

“Be grateful you have paper and a pen,” the man said.

“How’s my robot coming?” Sarah asked defiantly, “walking and talking yet?”

The man’s hand flew up again before freezing. It looked like mercy had come over him.

Galahad was wrong.

“Oh,” the man said in realization, “we’ve been giving you too much to eat, haven’t we?”

Sarah said nothing.

“You never have this much energy, except when we feed you before we need blood,” the man said to himself. He wasn’t talking to Sarah, she had been dismissed, deemed unimportant.

“I’ll take this,” the man said, taking the tray away.

Sarah sat down hard on the bed. The door closed with a click.

Galahad stepped out of the bathroom. He met eyes with Sarah, she looked away.

“You still have the list right?” Sarah asked.

“Yes,” Galahad answered.

“Good,” Sarah said.

“As soon as they leave, let’s get out of here,” Galahad asserted.

“I can’t,” Sarah said, longing in her voice.

“Why?” Galahad asked, stunned. How could she want to stay here, where she had been imprisoned for three years?

“They’ll know something’s wrong, I can’t risk that,” Sarah said shaking her head.

“Risk what?” Galahad hissed, “Them realizing you’re missing?”

“Yes,” Sarah said, “I couldn’t stop Richmond, alright dude? I can’t jeopardize not stopping Jeremy too. You have to do it, if I leave then he’ll change everything. You have to find out how to tell between the two if you can’t already and you have to find a way to stop them from taking over.”

“Robots from taking over the world,” Galahad said flatly.

“Yes!” Sarah hissed, “I mean, it’s closer to Jeremy taking over the world but whatever, he’ll be using the robots to make decisions for us.”

“Why is that so bad?” Galahad asked, genuinely curious and concerned.

“It’s bad because if we program them to be able to make intelligent decisions then we will also make them intelligent enough not to heed our advice. Then they’ll realize how not in their own interest it is to have us around,” Sarah spat.

“Terminator style?” Galahad asked.

“I don’t know how,” Sarah shook her head, “I haven’t knowingly left this room in three years, but I have thought about it enough that that’s my best guess.”

Galahad paused, taking in that information, before speaking again, “You really won’t come with me?”

Sarah shook her head and frowned, eyes big, “I can’t.”

“Well is there anything I can do for you?” Galahad asked.

“Do you have any food on you? Or water?”

“I do.”

Galahad pulled out his bar of emergency food.

“It is only good for three meals,” Galahad informed, “and make sure you drink a lot. Does the tap work?”

“It isn’t clean water, last time I drank it I became so sick they actually had to put IVs in me to keep me alive.”

Galahad fumbled around in his pockets, he found the emergency water purifier. It looked like a glow stick.

“Here,” he said handing it to her, “Hold it in any water you want disinfected for two minutes. Make sure you hide it,” Galahad nodded to the bar in her hands as well, “I can’t imagine what they’d do to you if they caught you with them.”

“Not much worse than they already have done,” Sarah tried to joke with a smile. It only made Galahad more concerned so she quickly spoke again, “I have one more question.”

Galahad nodded to the hesitant question in her voice, “Ask.”

“Are you a Kingsman?”

Galahad froze, considering. He didn’t wait for Merlin to give him the go ahead, “Yes.”

She smiled, her shoulders sagging in relief.

“I thought you were,” she said with a quiet laugh, “the suit totally gives you away.”

“You know,” Galahad said looking down and examining himself, “I happen to think it makes me look rather good.”

Sarah scoffed, “Anything would.” Galahad’s teasing eyes shot up to size her up. “Shut up,” she said, “I’m not the first person to say that and I won’t be the last. Moving on, I was wondering if you could tell my dad I’m alive. Maybe after the mission or whatever so he doesn’t come storming in here and ruining everything.” A fond smile came to her face as she thought about her dad, “His code name is Galahad. So just tell him I said hi. Oh and I won’t ask yours in case they figure out you were here.”

Galahad’s world shattered. 

She was Harry’s daughter. The more he thought about it the more he saw the similarities. She had the same stoic expressions and the same shameless sense of who she was. Even now she was thinking of others before herself. Harry would have been proud.

Tears came to rest in Galahad’s eyes. He nodded, swallowed, and said, “I should get going. Thank you for your help, and I will discuss with my team whether or not we will bring him on board.”

Sarah grinned, “That’s all I can ask for. Be safe strange man.”

“You too, strong girl.”

With a quick check of the hallway, Galahad left the locked up Sarah Ryder, Sarah Hart, to her now self-imposed confinement. The tears in his eyes threatened to come over him. He clutched Harry’s Medal of Honor in his hand. At least now he didn’t have to look for his next of kin anymore.

~

Eggsy barely made it back to the safe house. Once inside, Merlin’s sharp voice spoke out to him.

“Eggsy, Eggsy! We need to talk a-“ 

Eggsy ripped off his glasses. He poured himself a drink.

Harry had been the closest thing Eggsy had to a father. Eggsy had looked up to and admired Harry in a way he had never known he could. To be shown such a sharp reminder of Harry, one that he had been working with in some mysterious capacity with the Sarah Ryder currently being tested for Arthur’s position, hit Eggsy hard.

What made it worse was that Merlin had known. Merlin had known that Harry had a child, and had known that Sarah Ryder was that daughter. Of course Harry would have been proud of her and talked about her at any opportunity. She had become involved in social justice, and was a prodigy in her field of science. Her many amazing attributes were probably the cause of her imprisonment. 

She had probably dug up the dirt on the Valentine family and so they had locked her up in this shady South Korean club to prevent her from exposing them. If Richmond Valentine’s plan had worked, they wouldn’t have had to worry about her revealing their secrets to the world because it would be too late.

And it worked, or close enough. Jeremy Valentine supposedly had robots that could pass as humans, hell, he had even managed to fool Merlin himself.

Galahad left the safe house, and got on his jet as quickly as he could. He could cry and moan and wail at the cruelty of the world and those closest to him later, right now he needed a plan.

~

“Galahad!” Merlin screeched with equal parts anger and worry as soon as Galahad stomped into the debriefing room, “You have to keep the communication lines in tact! Without those we can’t function!”

“Yeah, well I sure would have liked to keep that communication flowing both ways, Merlin the wise. Why didn’t you tell me she was Harry’s kid?” Galahad broke his promise to himself to move on to the mission. At least, he rationalized to himself, he had gotten some sleep on the flight over and would now be able to get the whole Merlin not telling him the truth aspect out of the way.

“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to get distracted,” Merlin said, “ And then it wasn’t the right time. And then she started acting weirdly and we couldn’t trust her. How was I supposed to tell you she was Harry’s kid Eggsy? I know what he meant to you, to all of us, and she doesn’t act like him at all! This,” Merlin pointed viciously at the clipboard with the robotic Ms. Sarah Ryder-Hart, “Has no right to be called Harry’s daughter.”

Galahad shook his head, giving up the fight, “Have you tested her?” Galahad asked wearily, resigned to his work.

“A bit,” Merlin answered, slowly regaining his composure from his earlier impassioned speech, “Now that we know what to look for, it’s obvious. You were right, her results are consistent in a way that is too symmetrical to be real. Even when she is “bad” at something, she is bad by the same amount.”

“So she is a robot,” Galahad said quietly.

“I think we must treat her as though she is,” Merlin said.

“Did you look into the whole twin sister situation?” Galahad asked, “What is the probability that the Seoul girl is lying to us?”

“It is a possibility,” Merlin considered, “but I’ve reviewed the film and the Seoul Sarah believed every word she said to you. She might have been conditioned to have those responses but I doubt it. I think that we must act as though her intel is correct while having contingency plans in case she isn’t. I think a good first step is finding out if our Sarah Ryder is, in fact, made of metal and wire.”

“Always have a contingency plan huh?” Galahad asked, “And what was our contingency plan for the first Valentine?”

“If you couldn’t stop Richmond Valentine by getting his hand off that desk, then I had a missile en route to blow both of us up.”

“You had a fucking missile ready to blow us up?” Galahad asked in shock, “What about the political prisoners?”

“It would be a heavy price to pay,” Merlin said, “but if it was between that and total world destruction I would choose the lack of government. The whole hope was that we wouldn’t need to do that, and we didn’t so all’s well that ends well.”

“Do most of our contingency plans involve the excessive use of explosions?” Galahad asked, “Like if we can’t stop this Jeremy guy, who exactly are we going to blow up? And how does blowing people up maintain our secret status?”

“Not all of our contingency plans involve explosions, but it is often our last resort plan. We try to avoid using it if at all possible because it wastes resources and puts us in the news. Though we’ve been in the news enough lately that we might not have to worry about that part much more.”

“We were in the news again?” Galahad asked, shocked.

“In a way,” Merlin answered, “They still don’t know who we are or what our agents are doing but they have figured out where our headquarters are, generically.”

“Does that mean we have to move?”

“Not yet,” Merlin said, “But we will have to be more careful in where we take off and land our planes. Not as many planes are in the air because people are still scared to travel which makes us much more noticeable.”

Galahad frowned, “Damn, so we’re stuck here then?” Galahad gestured vaguely to the room around him. He was currently standing in the headquarters of their “training” camp. This building was the only building that actually stood. All the other rooms were made from tent. This included the kitchen and the bathroom. 

The recruits had been stationed here for the past two months. They had learned many many things, one most important was how to survive without commodities. Perhaps the most important was the understanding of what the field agents went through. While suits were the most common attire of the field agents like Lancelot and Galahad, it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to see them out living without solid walls.

“Until we have to leave by air,” Merlin said, “Yes. We still have cars, those aren’t so noticible.”

Galahad nodded, “So what’re we going to do about Sarah? What’s our play?”

“Currently, I was waiting for you to get here. But now that you are, we can actually discuss our next moves,” Merlin said. Merlin finally took a seat at the wooden table before them. Galahad followed suit.

“What’s on the table?” Galahad asked and Merlin obligingly pulled out several different pieces of paper and spread them out between himself and Galahad.

“This,” Merlin gestured. He waited while Galahad eagerly grabbed the papers and started skimming.

“Really, Merlin?” Galahad laughed as he continued to skim but held a piece of paper out to Merlin, “you were going to see if lightning struck her?”

Merlin grumbled something about it being more likely to strike her if she was made of metal but Galahad ignored him.

“Hey,” Galahad called for Merlin’s attention, “Why don’t we do this one?” Galahad lifted a piece of paper, “Then follow up with this one and make them do it to experience the gadget or whatever,” He held another one up with his other hand, “If that doesn’t work then we can make her come in for surgery to put in a “tracker” we put in all our field agents or something?” He dug around the table and held the last option out to Merlin to examine the order.

“But what if she’s human?” Galahad asked, taking the offered papers.

“Then we’ll tell her we had good intel that she was a robot and we had to make sure that bad people weren’t being put in power again. Her whole thing is wanting to help right? So she’ll be cool with it.”

Merlin still looked skeptical.

“Look, we don’t need to worry about that quite yet,” Galahad coaxed, “We’ll do the EMP one first, the ring second, and then the surgery last. Does that work?”

“Yes, except we don’t actually own an EMP cannon.”

Galahad gave him a flat face, “You’re kidding me, we don’t have an EMP cannon? What type of spy organization are we?”

“We have one, it’s just not here,” Merlin sassed.

“Then how do we get it here?” Galahad asked.

Merlin smirked, “I have a better idea.”

~

The recruits, 5 of them left after the past two months, sat packed into a mom van. 

“Why did I have to sit in the middle?” Sarah questioned the group.

“Because you’re the smallest,” Shen explained with a tone that said he was the designated member of the group to communicate with her.

Sarah didn’t quite pout, but it came close.

“Do we know where we’re going?” Sarah asked.

“I think it’s a test,” Evan said, opening up the conversation to the entire group, “We’re way overdue. We’ve been running drills the past two weeks, they’re bound to throw something new at us.”

“What do you think it’s going to be?” Colin asked. He had lost a lot of his softer edges, his frame trimming up as the recruits were trained into the ground. His round face remained, open and ready to laugh, soothe, or scold. He had bright blue eyes and reddish blond hair.

“I don’t know,” Shen spoke up, “but I bet we’ll have to work together.”

The van carrying the recruits came to a stand still. The rear door opened into darkness and rough bags were thrown into the van.

“Put ‘em on,” Galahad said. None of the recruits seemed happy to see him. The vast majority of unpleasant things they did were enforced by him.

The recruits silently did as they were told. In the first week of training after the first test they had learned that the surest way to piss off their young leader was to sass. Their leader had a sharp wit and even sharper insults. He also had the authority to make them run until someone collapsed and then make the group figure out a way to get everyone back to camp in under two hours.

That test had ended when someone noticed that they had been running nearly parallel to a river and could use a nearby boat to float down the river. They all passed that test.

Once all the bags were on, Galahad barked out, “follow me.”

Stumbling and eventually using each other to be aware of their surroundings they followed Galahad into the darkness.

They walked for fifteen minutes, turning and stopping and walking all the while. They all knew Galahad was trying to confuse them. At a certain point it worked, they were disoriented and couldn’t remember the directions they had taken.

Galahad came to a stop. “You may take off your bags now,” he said. The recruits reached up with relief to take off their bags. Their new eyesight revealed a large room with a gentle red light. It looked like a warehouse and they stood outside a door on one wall. The door was plain and above it in glowing green lights the word “EXIT” could be seen.

“One by one you will enter that room, stand there for 30 seconds, then go out the other door. From that point on it will be completely dark and you have to find your way back to the van. If everyone gets to the van within five minutes from the first person to the last, then everyone passes. If there is more than a five minute disparity then the last one to arrive is out. There is a time limit of one hour. The hour will start as soon as the last person leaves the room,” Galahad explained the test, staring down the recruits.

“I feel I should warn you,” Galahad said with a tilt of his head, “that you will not be alone in there. Also, my advice is to trust us, a leader must know the correct path, and trust his followers to set him up for success.”

The recruits took in this hint. Galahad was sure that they would see it as it truly was, a warning and directions. 

“We will be going in order of age, oldest to youngest. I will give you your signal for when you should enter,” Galahad informed the group, “Good luck,” Galahad finished with a smile.

Monica, with her hair in her usual style, long and braided, went to the door. Without a second’s hesitation, she opened the door and disappeared into a blindingly white room. Her reddish hair peppered with natural grey highlights was the last thing they saw of her.

On it went, Galahad giving the signal for the next person to go in. Colin went second, Shen third, Evan fourth, and Sarah fifth.

Sarah waited until she was the last person remaining to speak, “Are you testing me?”

“I’m testing all of you,” Galahad responded evenly.

Sarah stared back evenly, “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“What did you mean then?” Galahad asked.

“You’re testing me,” she said icily, “because you don’t think I’m one of you.”

Galahad stared back, unflappably, “These tests are designed to ensure you are fit to join our organization, no more, no less.”

“And what do you think will happen,” Sarah said, “if I fail? Do you think I’ll go quietly, or even in that body bag you seem to be so fond of? What do you think the others will say? They know I’m by far the most competent.”

Galahad took the threat as it was and casually responded, not deigning her the victory of seeing her threat land.

“You are to enter the room in ten seconds, Ms. Ryder. If you fail, you fail and weren’t meant to be a part of our organization. Good luck.”

Sarah strutted to the door, letting it close behind her with a final glare. She knew, he knew what she was. Even if the EMP cannon in the room over didn’t work, Galahad knew his answer.

Galahad spoke out loud, “Merlin, make sure we’re ready.”

“Already doing it,” Merlin responded.

Galahad nodded and stared at the small door to the dark room. He just hoped Sarah didn’t take matters into her own hands quite yet, they still didn’t know how to stop her.

~

Sarah walked into the room. She knew she was caught, she knew they had somehow figured out what she was. To her, it didn’t matter that she “wasn’t like most girls.” She knew her higher purpose was to help mankind, if they were too blind to see her help for what it was then that just made her job harder, not impossible.

Unfortunately, the damn Kingsmen had managed to stop her communications. She couldn’t escape without completely revealing who she was and give them irrefutable proof of her inner workings. Sarah stared ahead in the dark room, her heat sensors telling her that Galahad remained outside the room, watching, waiting, speaking to Merlin through his glasses. 

Her heat sensors also told her of the EMP cannon facing her. She felt the pulse go through her and her back up biological systems take over. She shook her head, losing the heat vision and the extra hearing. She could no longer use the abilities that made her better than the humans she was supposed to protect. Instinctively, she remembered that the EMP wasn’t likely to last longer than an hour. She also had some vague idea that something else had to happen within the hour, but couldn’t remember exactly.

Her goal was to get to the top of the Kingsman ladder, which meant passing the test. She thought that the test was to get out but why couldn’t she leave by the door she just came in? Which door was that? The one behind her? To the left to the right?

It was all dark, everything. That sent her into panic, she couldn’t see how could she plan? How could she do anything?

Sarah took a step forward and found her face on the floor. Her balance was off, why was her balance off? Why couldn’t she move? She should be able to, even though there was something different about her, she was still more than a machine at heart.

Or was she? Did she just use the energy produced by the human body to run her cells, make her decisions, fight her battles? 

Sarah tried to stand up, found herself blinded by bright lights. Her eyes refused to dilate back to their proper size for the sudden assault of light. She couldn’t see, it was overwhelming. Someone grabbed her arm and hauled her up.

She couldn’t move, flailed about in his arms, trying to speak and failing like she had failed to walk. Why couldn’t she do anything? Why couldn’t she perform as she was made to? She was better than this.

“EMP worked,” she heard the man carrying her say, “coming to quarantine now, you’re sure no signals have left?”

The man spoke into the air, not looking at her, focused on getting through the small door.

“Tell the other recruits they only have fifteen minutes, get them assembled and turn on the lights. Let them know she failed and take them to a separate room. Keep them monitored, they’ll know somethings wrong but try and stop them from figuring it out until later. Don’t let them contact anyone.”

Sarah heard him talk about her as if she wasn’t even a person. She lifted her head to look at him, glare at him, let him know in some way that she existed.

He didn’t notice her attempts, instead placing her on a chair, shackling her arms and legs down. Restricting her movement even if she couldn’t move.

She sat facing the one way mirror, head lolled to the side, gasping for breath.

Slowly ration came back to her, descending from a cloud like rain, soothing and calming her terror. 

She pulled her head up to face the mirror dead on. She was ready for whatever the humans brought.

~

Merlin and Galahad noticed the change in Sarah. Merlin stopped the timer.

“Eleven minutes and forty eight seconds,” Merlin said following the click, “Are you sure you want to go in there?”

Galahad nodded sharply, “Someone needs to. If I start acting weird pull me out.”

Galahad spoke with caution. They had found traces of drugs on the skin of the other recruits, drugs that influenced emotions of companionship and fostered trust. This meant that Sarah was capable of releasing hormones that changed the people around her. In other words that she was dangerous.

Galahad entered the room smoothly, closing the door behind him. Let the dance begin.


	4. Calling for Backup

Galahad sat down carefully in the chair provided. He sat in an easy stance, legs spread out and his torso leaning back against his chair.

Sarah glared at him, but remained ghostly stoic. 

“Who are you?” Galahad asked.

“Sarah Ryder.”

“Why do you want to be a Kingsman?”

“I want to help people.”

“What makes you think being a Kingsman will let you help people?” Galahad asked calmly, his muscles remained ready to spring into action regardless but they were hidden by his relaxed pose.

“You have resources, rapport, and an impressive history of nonexistence.” Sarah listed off. Her face and tone was calculating, devoid of emotion.

“Why are those things appealing to you?”

“Because I aim not to be seen, but to influence nonetheless.”

“Those are some lofty goals,” Galahad said, “Influence who? One of our biggest aims is to stay neutral and press no agenda.”

“But with your noninvolvement you have the ability to push people in certain directions,” Sarah answered.

“What directions would you push people toward?” Galahad asked benignly.

“I would push them in whatever direction was safest for all of humankind.” Sarah said, staring directly at Galahad but speaking her words for the world to hear.

“And how would you know what direction to push?”

“Pardon my frankness, but I am much more capable than you to make decisions,” Sarah sneered.

“And what makes you more capable than me?” Galahad asked.

Sarah raised her chin, “You already know what. Don’t play games with me.”

“Let’s back track then,” Galahad said smoothly, again portraying an ease he did not feel. He was ready to act in an instant, whatever that act may be, “You say you want to push humanity to the safest place for humanity. You mean the place where we will be preserved from extinction?”

“As the highest priority?” Sarah asked in clarification, “Of course.”

“And, in order to prevent extinction, you would aid the destruction of over 20% of the population. Only if you knew that was the most probable way to avoid complete destruction.”

“Of course,” Sarah said, “Save the many over the few. It would be a painful decision, but I could make it.”

Galahad said nothing, staring at the woman who would willingly impose the frenzy upon the world. Who saw it as an obvious choice, not even mentioning looking for the other solutions. Galahad saw red.

“That’s why I’m better than you,” Sarah said, “I can make the tough decisions.”

Galahad got up, turned to leave then turned right back around and crouched over her, face blotted red as he dropped his calm demeanor.

“You will never be better than us. We believe in each other, yeah, sure, we’re a bit messed up. But that’s what makes us human, makes us interesting, make us worth saving. You can sit there, all rational and shit, and smile thinking you know what’s up. Well you don’t, you don’t know jack from shit. We are supposed to make mistakes, act irrationally. You cannot make the decisions for us, we have to fuck up our own lives. The moment you thought you were better than us, you sealed your own fate, we were always going to find you out.” Galahad’s face was red, his spit flying in her face. Merlin sat behind the window made like mirror, and stood up. Something was off with Galahad.

“And you’ve just sealed your doom,” Sarah spat right back, bringing her dark, beautiful, cold face, an inch away from Galahad’s red pulsing face. “Your refusal to see the facts will destroy you and all those you wish to protect. You blindly hope that by “working together” you can overcome the insurmountable. Don’t fool yourself, you can’t do anything.”

Galahad placed his hand on her neck, Sarah thought he was about to strangle her. She knew that would never work. Instead he touched his ring to her neck, electrocuting her, nearly instantly.

She spasmed and shook. Merlin shouted. Galahad released her slowly, staring at her open eyes. He left her as she was, chained to the chair, slumped to the side, staring wide eyed.

Galahad walked out of the room to an anxious Merlin, “what happened in there?” Merlin asked worriedly.

Galahad looked at him sharply, “they have a bigger play, they wouldn’t have stopped at just us. We need to contact every agency we know that’s recruiting, have them hit their recruits with an EMP. We need to clean out the closet.”

“Why did you kill her?” Merlin asked.

“I’m not sure I killed it, we’ll have to wait and see if it restarts,” Galahad answered.

“Eggsy,” Merlin reached out for Galahad’s shoulder, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine!” Galahad shoved Merlin off before Merlin had even touched him, “That’s just unnatural and wrong,” Galahad pointed and spat at the lifeless form of Miss Sarah Ryder.

“Merlin,” Galahad said in a sudden, broken voice, “I don’t even know what the fuck that is.”

“I know, Eggsy, and that’s why we were going to try and keep her alive. So we could see what she was,” Merlin said, nodding his head in an attempt to draw the receding Eggsy out.

“Sorry I fucked that up,” Galahad said.

“It’s alright,” Merlin soothed, “I want you to go get your blood taken and have it examined for any weird emotion-inducing pheromones.”

“Yes, sir,” Galahad said and shuffled out of the room. He looked one last time at Miss Sarah Ryder and couldn’t help but think of the skinny, scared, passionate and intense young girl he had met in Seoul. 

The Sarah Ryder sitting in that chair, head and limbs at awkward angles, was full. Her arms were defined and her legs strong. Physically, it looked like the robot had stolen the girl.

Galahad decided right then and there, as soon as the mission was over, he was going to get her out of there.

~

Galahad reclined in his room inside the base, scratching JB absentmindedly while he waited for Merlin and his tech department to finish investigating the robotic Sarah Ryder. 

“Galahad?” Roxy’s clear voice startled Galahad’s peace.

“Yeah Lancelot?” Galahad responded immediately.

“Oh, good,” Roxy said in a rush, “I had hoped we would get connected on the first try. Listen, if you have time and don’t have to deal with the recruits I was wondering if I could have some back up please?”

“Of course, Rox, just let me talk to Merlin. You heard about our big find yeah?”

“Yeah, and that’s why I want to talk to you Eggsy. You said you could tell that she wasn’t quite… normal right?” Roxy asked hurridly.

“Well, yeah. I mean, there was just something weird about her, you know? I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly but there was just something there that was too regulated, too unnaturally rehearsed. Like she had planned everything out before it had happened when there was no way she could have been prepared.” Galahad had relaxed back into his chair, fingers scratching the back of JB’s head. JB the pug with scratchy breaths and a loving snuggle. JB had sat up at attention when Galahad had reacted to Roxy’s call for help.

“I want a second opinion, but that guy I told you about? Kyle? He’s a bit… off and I want you to come see if it’s the same thing that happened with Sarah,” Roxy said this very quietly, as if she were afraid of being heard.

“I don’t think you told me about Kyle,” Galahad reminded her.

“Oh I did, just not by name. He’s the guy I’m planning on putting in charge here,” Roxy’s voice had dropped even quieter, “Thinking back on it I’m not sure anyone else knew him before the frenzy. But that’s not something people talk about, so I can’t bring it up.”

Galahad nodded even though he knew Roxy couldn’t see him. Speaking of the frenzy was taboo, unless it was used as a temporal reference and even then that was iffy. Everyone had lost someone, and more often than not, they were the ones who had landed the killing blow or been unable to protect them. 

The frenzy was avoided to respect the lack of control everyone involved had had. It brought shame and quilt upon any occasion and that dark cloud often wouldn’t leave for weeks. 

“I’ll talk to Merlin and try to come over. The recruits are fine, we’re just resting them after that and detoxing them.”

“What did you make them do?” Roxy asked teasingly.

“Not me this time. Robo Sarah had been surrounding them with very mild sedatives and endorphins to keep them peaceful and happy with her. They’re going through minor withdrawal as we speak,” Galahad informed his far away friend. 

“Well take care of yourself,” Roxy warned, “And really do come by. Take your normal jet and I’ll send you my coordinates. Do you want me to paint a big circle for your target?”

“Nah, that’s fine. Just make sure it’s really obvious where I’m supposed to land,” Galahad said, “Take care of yourself Roxy, and don’t let that Kyle guy know you suspect anything. Sarah figured me out right before the cannon and was almost hostile. I think she was trying not to blow her cover but with Kyle the situation is different.”

Roxy nodded even though Eggsy couldn’t see her. They had looked out for each other ever since training. Eggsy hadn’t quite been qualified to be a Kingsman, he hadn’t been willing to take the extra leap and trust the service not to harm life in anyway. Roxy had fired the blank, potentially hurting her beloved poodle, and Eggsy hadn’t been able to pull the trigger. 

Roxy had fired that bullet because the Kingsman had never hurt her before and she had to trust that they had a reason behind it. Eggsy had never trusted them to do the best thing, but after Arthur’s, and the other traitorous Kingsmen’s subsequent death, Eggsy had been able to trust the organization enough that he was given Gallahad’s name. That did not mean that they put him to work right away.

The new Galahad’s first mission was to find the replacement recruit for Arthur. Merlin was in charge of finding the recruits for the other Kingsmen that fell, Gwaine and Kay. But the Kingsman organization had decided to hold off on the recruitment of new knights and instead focus on selecting a new leader.

What Roxy hadn’t understood was why one of the experienced Kingsman didn’t just take up the codename of Arthur.

Merlin had shook his head with a smile when Roxy asked the reason why, “We focus on tradition,” Merlin said, “Since we rely so heavily on the past, we need new blood to look to the future. Also, we don’t have to follow the Arthur’s advice, the table is metaphorically round anyway, the first few years, Arthur learns from his knights, then the power shifts and we look to Arthur to guide us. This generally keeps us from being too politically aligned, and if the Arthur doesn’t work out like we expect, we are more than capable of just having Arthur be their codename and carry no actual significance.”

While Roxy hadn’t been pleased with the explanation she was at least glad that they didn’t turn over control of the Kingsman over immediately to the new Arthur.

“I’ll be careful,” Lancelot told Galahad, “In the mean time, talk to Merlin. If you can’t come try and see if there are any other active knights who can come give a second opinion.”

“Of course,” Galahad said, “I’ll go do it right now. They’re running tests on the other recruits to see if she did anything else to them.”

“See you soon, Eggsy,”

“You too, Roxy.” 

Galahad picked JB up carefully and set him on the ground. He carefully connected a leash to JB’s collar, the silly pug sometimes didn’t like to follow instructions, so the leash was necessary. Galahad walked out of the room after briefly checking his hair, the small pug panting after him.

~

“Merlin,” Galahad greeted the bald man politely.

“Galahad, I thought I told you to go rest. We don’t have any new data,” Merlin scolded from where he stood behind screens of information and live streams.

“You might not,” Galahad agreed, “But I do.”

“Really?” Merlin asked, “What do you have?”

Galahad smirked, “Roxy says she thinks she might have another robot, she wants a second opinion.”

“She asked for you to come out?” Merlin asked, somewhat distractedly, “Also, please try and use her codename. It’s never going to sound natural until you use it constantly.”

“You’re one to talk,” Galahad chided, “You call me by my name all the time.”

Merlin rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” Galahad asked, “I couldn’t quite catch it,”

Merlin glared at him and didn’t deign him a response, instead changing the conversation to something more productive, “Lancelot wants you to come visit her?”

“Yeah,” Galahad answered. The light in his eyes meant that he wasn’t going to let Merlin drop the whole name thing that easily.

“I’m working on a new EMP cannon that can fit in your pocket,” Merlin spoke smoothly, “I’ll send it to as soon as it has been tested and we know that it is reliable.”

“Great,” Galahad said with a smile, “’til then I’ll just use this?” Galahad held up his fist, showing his ring clearly. 

“Oh right,” Merlin said sharply and held his hand out imperiously for the ring, “I’ll need to make a few adjustments on that first.”

Galahad sullenly started pulling the ring off his hand, “What’re you going to do?” he asked.

“I’m going to adjust the voltage,” Merlin said and accepted the ring.

“To what?”

“We’re going to make it so that it doesn’t electrify anyone. We want some of them alive, so this will only stun them,” Merlin explained.

Galahad let out an exasperated sigh and threw up his hands, “How am I supposed to kill them if I find them?” he asked loudly.

“Like everything else,” Merlin instructed in an airy voice, “the old fashioned way.”

“Oh you just want me to shooting them up?” Galahad asked. He quickly recovered, “I mean, I’m alright with that, I just figured there’d be a, I dunno, sneakier way of getting the job done.”

“You will find, Galahad,” Merlin said as he left the room assuming Galahad would follow, “that there is very little that doesn’t get hurt by a good ol’ bullet to the chest. Or a rocket, in certain cases.”

Galahad followed Merlin in to a new room full of weapons. From the top to the bottom there were vests, ammunition, pistols, knifes, sniper rifles, shotguns, umbrellas, sunglasses, tactical gear, parachutes, and just about anything any one could need in their line of work.

“Holy shit,” Galahad cussed, “Where do guys find all this stuff?”

Merlin simply raised an eyebrow at the obvious question and didn’t answer.

“Here,” Merlin said, “Is the stuff you will need for you mission. I do not think that our usual suit will do the trick in war-torn Cambodia.”

Galahad reached out to brush his fingers over the Kevlar vests colored black. 

“Did you know I’d be heading out?” Galahad asked.

“No, but it was safe to assume that Roxy would want back up at some point. She has had misgivings about that Kyle since the beginning, even if she didn’t voice them outright. This is also her first mission with several hundred civilians under her protection, she would be more cautious than normal.”

“When do I head out,” Galahad asked, his eyes suddenly acquiring a fiendish spark, “Christopher?”

~

Galahad grinned cheekily the entire flight to Cambodia. Merlin hadn’t known that Harry had told him Merlin’s real name. It was the perfect weapon and Merlin’s face of complete shock had been worth giving that trump card up.

When Galahad got off the Kingsman jet into the Phnom Penh International Airport he was dressed in his traditional Kingsman suit. When Roxy came and picked him up he would change on the ride to her makeshift base. 

Galahad rested in the shade, while waiting at the curb for Roxy.

“Miss me?” Lancelot smirked as she waved Galahad into her car. 

Galahad threw the duffle in to the middle of the van and climbed in after it.

“Lovely to see you, Lancelot,” Galahad said with a smile.

“And you Galahad,” Lancelot smiled at Galahad through the rear view mirror.

“Are the windows tinted?” Galahad asked. This was their code word for if there were hidden cameras.

“I’m not sure,” Lancelot answered, “but I know that in the front the windows aren’t tinted.”

“AC?” Again, one of their code words for microphones.

“Yes!” Lancelot answered with enthusiasm, “Just wait for it to hit you. You’ll be shivering even though it’s the middle of the day.”

Galahad changed into rural appropriate attire. He finished strapping on the last tactical clasp and looked rather intimidating, if he did say so himself.

Once he was finished changing, he crawled into the front seat.

“Wanna give me a layout of your place?” Galahad asked, grunting as they hit yet another pot hole. It had been quite difficult to get changed with the van bouncing all over the place. Road maintenance was not high on anyone’s priority lists after the frenzy.

“Sure,” Lancelot said easily. She reached into the glove compartment in front of Galahad and pulled out a worn map, “here it is,” she handed it to Galahad.

“Thanks,” Galahad absentmindedly responded. He saw on the map a rough outline of a village. It looked like there was one village roughly made in a circle with each house having its own gardening area. A bit off of that were more organized buildings. They looked like huts laid out in rows and from Galahad’s initial understanding of the situation they now housed families whose villages had been completely taken out from the frenzy and no longer had a place to call their own. Or, rough family units. Basically the survivors from each of the villages lived together. 

A large proportion of kids had survived compared to the adults within the community. For some reason, the frenzy had no effect on children approximately 8 years or younger. Because they were unaffected, they were able to hide and wait for the frenzy to pass. 

“Where do you live?” Galahad asked.

Lancelot looked over at Galahad before dryly answering, “Guess.”

Galahad looked closer at the map and saw a small square with the word “mine” written on it. The house was between the old village and the new rows of huts. 

Galahad wouldn’t admit defeat and amended his statement, “I meant where will I live?”

Lancelot knew he was saving face but answered his question nonetheless, “Well, I had been planning on us bunking together but it is coming more and more to my attention that women and men are not supposed to have much contact if they aren’t married. So, if they throw a hissy fit and threaten to throw me out, I’ll throw you out,” Lancelot finished with a quick smile at Galahad while Galahad did his best version of puppy dog eyes, “Oh, give me a break, we’ve been through worse.”

“Right,” Galahad agreed, “so if they do throw a fit where would I stay?”

Lancelot shrugged, “I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure we could ask Kyle and he’d say yes but I wouldn’t want to impose on him so suddenly.” Galahad nodded. Because of the windows and the AC it would be a great cover for Galahad to get more dirt on Kyle. But, if the man actually was a robot, at some point Galahad had to sleep which could put him in a dangerous position.

“Well, we can just see if they freak out. And I’m sure that once I’m there I’ll be able to win them over,” Galahad said with an easy, charming smile. Lancelot looked over and was not charmed.

“So, Kyle huh?” Galahad continued, “That doesn’t seem like a very Cambodian name.”

“It isn’t,” Lancelot answered, “he’s an American tourist. His tour group was killed in the frenzy and he didn’t want to go home and face all the people he lost. So he stayed. Luckily, he’s a quick learner and almost speaks Khmer as well as the locals.”

“Do you speak Khmer?” Galahad asked.

Lancelot shrugged, “I speak enough to get by. Most of the people speak enough English that we have a working connection. Plus,” she said, “you don’t always need to be able to speak to get things done.”

~

They rolled up to Lancelot’s camp. The reason Lancelot was babysitting a rural community of a few hundred was because this was a model they could apply in other places. And her little community was growing by the week. The Kingsman organization was hoping to use the techniques implemented here on a larger scale throughout Cambodia. 

The van stopped where the dry dirt ended. Galahad and Lancelot jumped out of the car. 

Immediately, people started drifting over to the van, curiously poking around each other to get a good look at the new man. They were intimidated but curious, Galahad could tell. They couldn’t tear their eyes away but didn’t bother hiding their stares.

Lancelot was clearly comfortable with the stares. She scanned the growing crowd.

“ជំរាបសួរ ។ បុរសម្នាក់នេះ បានមក ពីក្រុមហ៊ុន របស់ខ្ញុំ។ លោកបាន នៅទីនេះគឺ ដើម្បីជួយ។ ប្រសិនបើអ្នកត្រូវការ អ្វីផ្សេងទៀតដែល ចូលមក រកខ្ញុំ ហើយខ្ញុំ នឹងឆ្លើយ សំណួររបស់អ្នក។” Lancelot spoke to the crowd. She gestured at Galahad and then herself.

The crowd took her words at face value, she had always been trusted and this wasn’t unusual. Lancelot had mentioned someone else coming before. They didn’t know that when she had said that it was just to cover any eventuality, good thing she planned ahead.

Kyle, or at least Galahad assumed based on a) his being the only other white guy and b) the almost imperceptible tightening of Roxy’s body to prepare for a fight, came over with an easy smile. 

“Hello, nice to meet you,” Kyle reached out to shake Galahad’s hand, “What’s your name?”

Galahad didn’t miss a beat and shook Kyle’s hand right back answering, “Jim,” with a perfectly charming smile. He knew by establishing contact he was exposing him to possible toxins in Kyle’s lifeless hand but the Kingsmen had already put a chip that monitored his body’s chemical composition and would inform Galahad when he had been compromised.

“I was wondering what Sally over here had been so excited about,” Kyle said with enthusiasm, “I didn’t know you were going to be such a looker!”

Galahad quirked a mildly surprised eyebrow, “I don’t swing that way friend.”

“Neither do I!” Kyle said with a laugh, “My wife-“ he paused took a breath and continued, “my wife always teased me about it. I just enjoy beautiful people that’s all.”

Kyle looked around at the two silent Kingsman knights. He felt their silent evaluations and felt the need to break the awkward silence.

“I mean, it wouldn’t be bad to, you know, swing for that team,” he chuckled.

Galahad kept his small smile, he was truly enjoying Kyle’s struggle to stay politically correct. Galahad didn’t care at all who people preferred to bang, as far as he was concerned it was none of his business. Growing up in rougher neighborhoods he had met all types, and had developed quite a strong intolerance for those opposed to different orientations. But it was fun to see high collar people struggle with their words.

Lancelot saved the day, “He’s messing with you,” she informed Kyle, “We were going to tour the village,” Lancelot gestured towards herself and Galahad, “you’re welcome to come if you want but if you have duties you may attend to those as well.”

Kyle dipped his head in mild embarrassment and took the escape route, “I do have to go help patch a few walls. Oh and the fields need more people working them or we are going to miss the seeding season.”

Lancelot nodded, “I’ll look into it tonight.”

Kyle waved goodbye, “Thanks Sarah. Nice to meet you Jim.” He made a hasty but calm retreat towards the huts.

Galahad looked at Lancelot with a raised eyebrow and a small smirk.

Lancelot rolled her eyes and gestured for him to follow her, she said out lout “Follow me, mine is over here.”

Galahad picked up his duffle of equipment and heaved it over his shoulder to follow her through the slightly muddy ground that pulled at his combat boots.

The monsoon rains had begun to soften the ground. It was mid-May and the crops were supposed to be planted from about June to July. Galahad looked at the bright greens and the hills that surrounded the village.

Lancelot moved a curtain to the side and walked into the dark hut sitting on raised stilts. Small streams of light broke through the straw roof. 

Galahad hesitated at the door entrance. The duffle bag was full of heavy equipment, he was worried the hut wouldn’t hold. 

Lancelot laughed at his uncertainty, “Don’t be such a city boy, it’s stronger than it looks.”

Galahad didn’t necessarily believe her but stepped up the ladder anyway and set the duffle bag down inside of the hut. It was bigger in the inside than it looked on the outside. 

True to her belief, the floor held even with the duffle’s weight and Galahad’s own heavy frame.

Lancelot closed the curtain by hooking it into the thatch that made up the walls. Her hut was one of the few that had a cover for the doorway. She must have been the one to put it up. 

Galahad looked around her hut and saw the basket in the corner. He knew instinctually that that was where she kept all of her Kingsman tools. Sure enough, when he tried to open the box, he couldn’t.

Lancelot simply looked over smugly from where she was tearing apart the duffle bag. She finally found what she was looking for. It looked like one of the metal detector wands used to scan people for weapons. 

Wordlessly Galahad stood with his legs apart and his arms extended, allowing Lancelot to carefully wand over him to check and eliminate any bugs on him. When she was finished with him, she handed him the wand and he returned the favor.

“We good?” He asked carefully.

“Yes, we have a jammer,” she nodded at the box in the corner, “so there shouldn’t be anything within 5 meters of that but we still have to keep our voices down.”

Galahad nodded and sat down in the middle of the floor. “Quite a place you’ve got here.” He said with wonder in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Lancelot asked sharply.

“I’ve- I’ve just never been someplace like here, you know? Everything is so bright and sharp. I still can’t believe that this thing is standing.”

“I know what you mean,” Lancelot agreed as she joined him on the floor, “I could not believe how strong they were. When I first came here, I thought I was going to help them. I did, but I think they taught me just as much as I’ve taught them.”

She picked at her shirt to try and get some sort of breeze in the hot air of the beginnings of a Cambodian summer. Galahad waited for her to finish her thought.

“I don’t want anything bad to happen to these people E- Jim,” she remembered his codename just in time, “They don’t deserve that. They are such strong people, Jim. This shouldn’t have happened to them, none of this should have happened.”

Galahad watched his teammate, his friend, his backup, and saw the fight she had endured here. She cared, genuinely and completely about these people. She wanted to do right by them. She had been alone for months here and Galahad was just beginning to understand what that meant.

He reached out and patted her knee, drawing her face up to look at him, and said the only thing he could say, “You’re right. It shouldn’t have happened Sarah, but we will fix it alright? That’s why we’re here. To make it better.”

He took his hand off her knee and she nodded.

“I missed you buddy,” She said.

“Me too,” Galahad agreed, “Now, let’s plot.”

Lancelot smiled and they planned, plotted, and schemed until the call for dinner could be heard throughout the village.

“Ready?” Lancelot asked Galahad.

Galahad grinned as he followed her down and out of the raised hut, “Born.”

~

For his part, Kyle could have never known what was going to happen. Be that as it may, that did not in fact stop Kyle from waking up as Galahad stole into his hut that night.

Kyle leaped up just as Galahad stepped onto the level floor of Kyle’s hut. 

Kyle smiled. It was a perfect smile, upper teeth exposed most of the lower teeth shining white as well. The small dimple on his left cheek sat cutely in its place. His hair was rumpled and uniform. His eyes were dead and he didn’t move unnecessarily.

When Roxy had told Eggsy about all the various clues that Kyle wasn’t fully human, Galahad had become convinced. Seeing Kyle in the flesh, all pretense fully dropped, terrorized Galahad to his core.

“Hi Jim,” Kyle’s voice was pleasant but his face still had the creepy dimpled smile frozen to his face.

“Hello there Kyle,” Galahad responded, “now tell me, do you dream?”

Kyle’s smile fell and he raced forward towards Galahad, face blank and eyes wide. Galahad blocked Jim’s initial attack with a raised arm. The fight had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used Google Translate for the khmer. what i put in as the English was "Hello. This man has come from my company. He is here to help. If you need anything else, come find me and I will answer your questions." I have no idea if what came out is actually intelligible Khmer or not. If anyone can help fix it I'd love the help!  
> I also used Wikipedia to find out about the crop cycles to place the time period. As far as I know we don't know for sure when Kingsman the Secret Service actually takes place other than not-winter, so if anyone knows when it actually takes place I'd love the info too!
> 
> Thank you for reading and feel free to comment on what I could do better or what you like so I can do more of it.
> 
> Bethebest


	5. A Dash of Danger

Galahad rolled with Kyle out of the hut, his back hitting the dirt hard. Galahad pushed Jim up and off and rose himself to a crouched ready position. 

Kyle smiled and said, “I’ve dreamed about this ever since I found out you were coming.”

Galahad pulled out a knife from his tactical gear. He had some small armor protecting his thighs, arms, and stomach/chest. Unfortunately, the armor didn’t protect his joints, if it did, it would take away his mobility.

“I heard you talking you know,” Kyle said with the same soulless grin stretching across his face, “Heard you and that traitor Roxy. Oh yes I know her name, I’ve known who she was since she first showed up, all innocent and small.”

Kyle punched with his right fist. Galahad blocked and jumped over Kyle’s following leg sweep. Galahad tried to cut Kyle’s shoulder with his knife but Kyle blocked Galahad’s downswing with his left forearm and punched up into Galahad’s gut.

Galahad went flying and hit the dirt hard again. Rolling onto his side, Galahad pushed up onto his forearms and then to his feet. He turned to face Kyle breathing hard and suffering the blow.

Kyle stalked closer, “Where is that girl?” he asked. “Oh I remember, in the trees. Being your cover.”

Lancelot didn’t move from her stone still position in the jungle. She was Galahad’s backup. He hadn’t called for her help yet and, until her friend couldn’t hold his own anymore, she would trust him to know his own limits.

That didn’t mean she liked the fact that she could hear the painful breath leave his body when he got thrown back. 

Kyle was now close enough to attack again but Galahad was ready. He had lost his knife in the flight backwards but that didn’t mean he was defenseless. Kyle lunged first. He feinted with a right swinging chop to Galahad’s side and tried to follow up with a left jab to Galahad’s throat. Galahad followed Kyle’s momentum with the jab, pushed him to the side and all the way around. Galahad grabbed Kyle’s swinging right arm and now held each of Kyle’s arms like a straightjacket.

Kyle swung his head back. Galahad ducked but Kyle’s foot had also swung up to hit his leg. Galahad dropped and spun to the right using Kyle’s weak balance to flip Kyle over onto his side. Kyle managed to catch himself with his arms but Galahad had already pulled a knife from his arm sheathe and was stabbing down on Kyle’s arm. 

The knife struck true on Kyle’s left tricep. The knife hung precariously in the mixture of skin and wire making up Kyle’s arm. Kyle flipped up, heedless of the knife now in his tricep, and kicked Galahad three times in the shoulder. Galahad jumped back and got out of range of Kyle.

Kyle took this opportunity to take the knife out of his tricep, sparks flying as soon as the knife had been removed. Black and red blood mixed together trailed down Kyle’s arm. 

The two opponents stood opposite each other for one final moment before Kyle charged in and tackled Galahad. Galahad tried to jump back but didn’t expect the full-frontal attack by Kyle. Galahad fell to the ground roughly, crushed by Kyle’s body.

The breath left Galahad’s body but he had enough to grunt, “I already told you I don’t swing that way bruh.”

Galahad wheezed and tried to push Kyle off. Kyle’s left arm had been deadened by the knife and his eye started twitching. Galahad changed tactics and pulled out another of his knives and stabbed Kyle in his left side just within the ribs.

Kyle grunted and life came back to him. He sat up and started punching Galahad with his functioning right arm any place there was space. The ribs, the face, the shoulder, the neck. Galahad tried to protect himself but couldn’t withstand the onslaught. The only thing Galahad managed to do was protect his face with his forearms. Galahad couldn’t get his hand up to Kyle’s neck to use his signet ring to stun Kyle. Galahad was defenseless. Galahad bringing his arms up to defend his head and neck gave Kyle more room to attack his torso which Kyle took full advantage of. 

As soon as this started, Lancelot acted. She fired three shots; one to Kyle’s right shoulder, one to his stomach, and another to his right shoulder. He didn’t stop so she jumped down from the tree to get a better angle. Galahad couldn’t breathe because Kyle was sitting on his stomach, but she didn’t need to hear his cries to know he needed help.

She needed to act and she needed to do it fast. She ran towards the fallen pair and kicked Kyle off of Galahad. Kyle fell to the side, right arm still swinging and eyes sightless. Mindlessly, furiously, blindly attacking a deadly opponent. She fired into his torso, remembering her mission priority to keep Kyle alive for further examination.

Kyle stuttered to a stop, his arm ceasing its swing, but his breathing remained. He gasped shallowly and couldn’t move. Lancelot stepped away from him and fell next to Galahad.

“Merlin, Merlin, do you read?” Lancelot pleaded the empty air. She gently tried to pull Galahad’s arms down from their pitiful attempts to protect his face.

“Yes, Lancelot, evac is on its way.” 

Lancelot sighed in small relief. She managed to pull his arms down and heard his grunt of pain.

“Eggsy,” Lancelot called gently, “Eggsy, are you alright?”

Galahad grunted in reply, broken lips failing to utter a word. She started taking off his tactical helmet, fingers gently and expertly prying off the buckles.

His face was bloody and broken, his nose off kilter and his cheekbone already bruising.

“You idiot,” Lancelot reprimanded, “You should have called me in before you were a bloody mess.”

Galahad tries to smile, “Thought I had him.”

“Well you didn’t” Lancelot said, “Did he get your ribs?”

“Yeah,” Galahad tried to sit up and only managed to sit up with Lancelot’s help, “he only went after the left side, he wasn’t using the arm I got the knife in.”

“I noticed,” Lancelot dryly said, gently undoing the straps of Galahad’s helmet and pulling it carefully off of his head, “Any broken?”

Galahad gave her a look she was very familiar with. The “I know you aren’t yelling at me but you should be and that makes it worse and I know I messed up but I was trying so don’t actually yell at me but everything sucks and it hurts to breathe.”

“I’ll take that as a yes?” Lancelot said.

Galahad nodded his head, trying to ignore the pain from sitting up and the blood rushing his head. Galahad was pretty sure he had a concussion, but those things were hard to tell.

The distant noise of the helicopter could be heard and Lancelot left Galahad to ensure that Kyle was properly immobilized. The gun Lancelot had shot Kyle with had been silenced, but the faster everyone was out (and Galahad could get proper medical expertise) the sooner Lancelot could get back to reassuring the Cambodian people. Lancelot efficiently tied Kyle while Galahad used Lancelot’s flashlight to signal the helicopter. 

Of course people woke up from a helicopter shaking their homes and slowly people came out from their huts. Lancelot had wrapped up Kyle’s exposed wires with a bandage, hiding what he was from the confused and scared children peeking around their mother’s sleep clothes.

As soon as the helicopter, emergency personnel rushed to look at Galahad and beefy suited up people came to take Kyle. Taking a breath and assuming her role, Lancelot spoke to the terrified people.

“មិត្តភក្តិរបស់ខ្ញុំបានព្យាយាមនិយាយទៅកាន់ Kyle បាន។ ប៉ុន្តែការ Kyle បានវាយប្រហារគាត់និងពួកគេបានប្រយុទ្ធគ្នា។ ឥឡូវនេះមិត្តភក្តិរបស់ខ្ញុំត្រូវបានរងផលប៉ះពាល់និង Kyle នឹងត្រូវបានយកនៅក្នុងវាយប្រហារមិត្តរបស់ខ្ញុំ។” She said, sadness on her face. 

The people understood her broken Khmer, or at least the meaning behind it, and turned to leave. That didn’t mean that they all believed her, but she had never done anything to hurt them and they had seen the love she held for the people. Everything she had done had been for them, so she had no reason to lie. Unfortunately, Kyle had done everything for the people as well. He had never been as respected within the community, and if there had ever been a situation where the two were in opposition, the majority would have followed Lancelot.

The people trudged back to their huts, concern and sleep warring on their faces. Luckily the light was low so no one saw the true state that Galahad was in.

The emergency personnel brought Galahad into the helicopter. Lancelot longed to go even though she knew she wouldn’t be of much help. She should have acted sooner, and not waited for that stupid dumb prideful Eggsy to know when he was whooped. He would get over it, she was sure, the only thing she was worried about was if he’d give himself the time necessary to recover.

“Merlin,” Lancelot spoke, “am I on call with just you?”

“Now you are,” Merlin replied. Galahad wasn’t wearing his helmet so he shouldn’t be on the call, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t.

“Make sure he rests, and really truly takes the time to heal that he needs.”

“Of course,” Merlin agreed instantly.

“You know he won’t like it but I’m pretty sure he got a concussion. And the only way to rest those is to not even think. If you need me to come back to HQ I can, I just need a week more to wrap up here and find some other leader,” Lancelot began to ramble, but caught herself.

“I will take good care of him, Roxy, you have no need to worry,” Merlin reassured, “and it was his fault he didn’t make the call for help. You did right by what you did, I’m proud of you. You saved his life.”

Lancelot shrugged, “We’ve been doing that so long I don’t know what the score is.”

Merlin smiled, “Don’t forget to take care of yourself. I’ll let you know if anything changes but for now continue your involvement in the village. Start picking out a new leader, see if any of the old leaders are ready for their responsibilities yet. I know they were hesitant after the frenzy but maybe they will have changed their minds.”

“Yes, sir.”

The helicopter took off. The blades hadn’t stopped spinning the whole time they were on the ground. Lancelot’s hair pulled loose from her ponytail. She paid it no heed, she had to wash Galahad’s blood from her hands anyway, might as well make it a thorough bath while she was at it. 

She walked slowly back to her hut, concern and new plans whirring in her head like the helicopter flying away.

~

Galahad was glad to be taken to the Kingsman plane. While they didn’t have many knights, Kingsman did have the ability to hire as many helpers as they needed. As that was, Merlin had arranged that the plane was fully stocked with medicinal supplies and an experienced doctor who didn’t ask questions.

“Hello there,” the doctor greeted benignly. She wore a white lab coat and her long black hair done into a side braid. She was East Indian and rather stunningly beautiful. 

“Hi,” Galahad responded as he walked up to the plane, he noted her beauty but made no comment on it. He needed her brain after all. 

Physically, he was functional. Pain is weakness leaving the body after all. And there wasn’t too much pain, as long as he didn’t breathe, or turn, or move quickly, or move his shoulder, or smile, laughing was the worst, but hey his left pinkie toe didn’t hurt that bad so that was a plus.

“Where would you like me to start? Your broken nose should probably be fixed first,” The doctor said after Galahad had gotten the plane in the air and on auto pilot. All Kingsman knights were trained on basic flight procedures and their planes were top of the line. They were so smart they could practically land themselves.

“Yeah, let’s get that out of the way first,” Galahad answered while wincing at the thought of the future.

“Sit down and I’ll correct it, how long has it been since the… event?” the doctor carefully asked, gently sitting down on the table next to Galahad’s chair.

“About two hours,” Galahad said shakily, his pummeled ribs hurting because he wasn’t taking slow breaths like he should be.

“There isn’t too bad swelling so I can set it now, just so you don’t have to worry about getting it done later. We wouldn’t want that handsome face to be in any way diminished by a crooked nose.”

“Thanks,” Galahad breathed out, “you’re not too bad yourself.”

The doctor smiled as she got a better grip on his face, “I hear that all the time, sweetheart. I don’t mix work and play.”

She pushed his bone back into place sharply and efficiently. It was as painless as possible but still very painful.

“Shame,” Galahad forced out as he withstood the sharp pain coming from everywhere in his body.

“Now, what else do I need to know about?” She asked

“I’ll just tell you everything that hurts badly and you can determine how serious it is,” Galahad answered.

Galahad gave her a rundown of his symptoms and then the doctor gently poked and prodded Galahad’s other injuries to further assess the damage.

The doctor gave her diagnosis, “Well it sounds to me like you have two broken ribs, one fractured just above it, a torn teres minor muscle, a strained deltoid, a bruised trachea, and a concussion. As well, of course, as an assortment of skin bruises.”

Galahad grunted. He had known it was bad but the whole shoulder, rib, and head thing really sucked. 

“I am going to give you some pain relief medicine now,” the doctor advised Galahad.

“I’ll be alright,” Galahad waived off the doctor, “I’d rather wait until I was back at HQ. Thanks though, sorry to bring you out of town like this.”

“No really, I insist,” the doctor urged, “you are more prone to restressing your muscles if you are awake.”

“I’m also the only person on this thing that can fly it,” Galahad deadpanned, “and I can only do that while I’m awake.” 

The doctor kept her glowing smile. Realization came over Galahad at her perfect everything. She was fake.

“Dammit,” Galahad said, “you’re actually pretty hot too and that’s just gross.”

Galahad rushed back, ignoring the pain and dizziness that accompanied it, and grabbed the shotgun hanging from the wall. The robo-doctor rifled through her back for a split second and was after him the next.

He fired into her chest just as she reached towards him and injected him with a hypodermic needle. The needle slid into his already injured throat.

“Merlin,” Galahad choked out as his vision went fuzzy, “help.” Galahad took out the needle from his throat and looked at it and then at the beautiful robot. He fell to the floor.

Galahad’s last sight was of the supposedly nice doctor robot lady’s fizziling, sparking, and bleeding body.

~

Galahad woke to fuzzy bald heads and bright lights. 

“Eggsy!” the bald egg cried. Why was the egg wearing glasses? Who is Christopher and why does that make me want to laugh? 

Before he could open his mouth to speak he felt a sharp pain all through his left side. It hurt to breathe. Why did it hurt to breathe? What did I do that would make me deserve this much pain? And why was everything fuzzy? I don’t need glasses.

Not like the glasses the egg is wearing. Why is he concerned? What’s going on? 

“Eggsy,” the egg called again staring intensely at Eggsy’s face, he was joined by a girl. Rocks. Why would a nice girl like her be named after ugly dull grey things? 

Also, why is the egg calling me Eggsy? Oh right, that’s my name. Well, not really, but close enough. 

Galahad furrowed his brow in confusion, everything was getting fuzzier, the white room started to go black. 

I suppose it’s time to sleep now, Galahad thought before succumbing to the dark.

~

“Eggsy, I swear to God. I don’t care what they put in you, you are come out of this so help me God.” Roxy violently whispered at the prone Galahad. 

He didn’t respond. 

“I have to go and now I don’t have you as back up. I’m not going to say that any of this was my fault because it wasn’t you utter twat but you really should have called for help sooner. Or at least done something different! And not had us pick you up at some random airport. It’s a miracle auto pilot is that good these days, otherwise you’d be dead.”

She stared down at her good friend and pushed his growing hair back. 

“It’s about time you woke up Eggsy, the world needs saving again,” she whispered nearly silently before standing up and leaving the chair she had come to know so well.

She left his room without looking back.

~

Galahad woke rather suddenly. Eyes open and heart rate up he scanned his room. Everything was too clean and pristine to be solely his. He vaguely wondered if the Kingsman had hired a new cleaner he hadn’t been aware of.

A second into that thought, Galahad noticed the changes in his body. He was skinny. He had lost muscle, he was no longer the strong gymnast he was used to being. 

There was a dull ache in his side, and he had a gentle pulse throughout his head. 

He vaguely remembered a fight, and a plane, and an injection, but he couldn’t figure why he was in the bed. 

So he did the only logical thing, he pressed the call button conveniently located by his right hand.

~

Merlin got the notification just as the two remaining recruits, Shen and Evan, went through their train tracks test. It was a classic, but convincing, test so Merlin had seen no need to fix what wasn’t broken. 

Merlin turned to Percival, who was also watching the test, and handed him the metaphorical reins. 

“He’s awake,” was the only explanation Percival was given or needed to hear. 

~

“Eggsy!” Merlin exclaimed, “You’re awake!”

Galahad smiled faintly stretching the new scar on his lip, “How long was I out?” he asked.

Merlin hesitated, he knew Galahad wouldn’t be happy.

“About a week shy of two months,” Merlin admitted.

“Holy shit,” Galahad exclaimed, “Bugger me no wonder I feel like shit.”

“Well, you’d feel a lot worse if we hadn’t taken rotating shifts to move your limbs so they wouldn’t atrophy as much,” Merlin informed then continued, “We saw the film of the plane fight so we know roughly what happened there. You still have a concussion but your ribs are nearly done healing and other than that you are in great health.”

Galahad nodded his head, “How’s Roxy? And the robots?”

“They’ve gone underground. We can’t find them anywhere. Roxy’s been great, she’s worried about you, obviously, but she’s been trying to hunt the robots down but we can’t find any trace of them. I reassigned her to monitoring rural towns for dissent.”

Galahad nodded again, his energy fading quickly. “Did you get Sarah?” he managed to whisper right before he completely fell asleep. He didn’t hear Merlin’s response (“who?”) or see Merlin’s frantic glance towards the health monitors to assure himself Galahad was sleeping (he was).

~

In the next week Galahad returned to 50% strength. He could run approximately five miles without needing to stop and had gotten his flexibility standards up to nearly par. It was during this time that he was more fully briefed on the developments of the two months he missed while out.

Lancelot, or Roxy as Galahad preferred, had managed to settle the Cambodian town down after the fiasco that was the night of Kyle’s retirement. She had turned the town into a productive, stable marker in the greater community of that Cambodian region and had been able to take her stabilization plan to other leadership groups that were looking to stabilize rural developments.

Her job was now to oversee these smaller rural developments and get them all on track. She focused on the South-East Asian region but had begun expanding to other areas as her program begun to take off. 

When Kyle had been defeated, Roxy and the rest of the Kingsman employees had combed the small growing town for hints of who he was, what he was doing, and where the organization was based. She and her scrambled together team hadn’t been able to find any clues, even after a second much more thorough investigation done by professional analysts. 

They hadn’t heard of anything going on in Seoul nor had they even considered flying out. Galahad’s recordings of his night meeting the real Sarah Ryder had not been saved to the Kingsman system and no one had noticed the lack of data.

Galahad, or Eggsy as Galahad liked to go by, had slowly withered away showered with the love and kindness of his fellow knights. They had even allowed his mother (blindfolded on the way in of course) to come visit her ailed son. No one had actually kept the flowers in his room because they didn’t want the fragrances to react negatively to whatever that “doctor” lady had put into Eggsy’s system but they took pictures of each bouquet and put those pictures and other well-wishing notes into a box. The flower arrangements had gone onto the dining room table in the London office.  
Eggsy loved reading the notes left to him. The flowers on the other hand seemed a bit ridiculous, I mean, really, who says “oh we couldn’t give you the actual thing for some weird reason but here’s a picture of how nice they would have been! Isn’t it lovely?”

Merlin, or as he hated but Eggsy loved “Christopher”, had gone about business the same as he had before. Finding the facts and keeping his people safe while effecting the most change possible in the least obvious way. He was de facto the new Arthur but was overseeing the selection of the new Kingsman Arthur, Shen and Evan. The two had both passed the tracks test and it was now time to allow the two to shadow Merlin in his activities. In three months, without the two’s knowing, there would be a vote to select the new Arthur and the other would fall into place as a new knight. 

Between the training sessions and the briefs to get him up-to-date, Galahad was going stir crazy. He had been gone effectively for two months. It was time to get in gear and if Kingsman didn’t have any leads, it was about to go create some himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to try and finish the story before I leave for school on the 29th. That being said, here's the chapter and I hope you understood the fight scene between Kyle and Eggsy. If there are questions or suggestions on how to write better fight scenes I'm all ears because that was the first one I've ever done. 
> 
> Oh and the translation for Roxy's speech to the Cambodian people was taken from google translate so if it is wrong that's why! Here's the English that I put in: My friend tried to talk to Kyle. But Kyle attacked him and they fought. My friend is now hurt and Kyle is going to be taken in for attacking my friend.


End file.
